Star Fox: Age of Devastation
by Mr. Hybrid
Summary: Strange new anomalies are turning up in the Lylat System and the discoveries spur previously undiscovered factions into conflict with one another as a monstrous armada closes in on the survivors of the Great War. Rewrite in Progress.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Star Fox belongs to Nintendo/Namco, Transformers belongs to Hasbro, OC (Starwing) belongs to me.

**Star Fox: Age of Devastation**

=Prologue=

~x~X~x~X~x~

An alarm sounded across the P.A. system of the Great Fox. Peppy checked after the second ring. Casually, Peppy got onto the P.A. to contact the rest of Star Fox, "General Pepper is calling, everyone report to the bridge." After getting off the P.A., he leaned back in his chair, waiting for the crew, and noticed fiery streaks in the far distance outside the window. He stared at them for a bit, mesmerized and recalling old childhood memories, before snapping his attention back to the bridge as a hologram of the General appeared. He saluted the assembled Star Fox crew, among them were new members, Miyu, Fay, and Saru. Fox McCloud returned the salute along with his team, "What's the situation, General?" General Pepper began the briefing, "A rather unusual one, Fox. Recently, archaeologists were visiting Sauria following a recently detected anomaly. With permission from the natives, they dug up the ground around the anomaly and have located what they only described as powerful technology unlike any seen before. They fear that if it were to fall into the wrong hands, it would cause untold amounts of destruction. That is where you come in. You're the best we could ask for, and we ask that you accompany the archaeologists back to Corneria. In turn, we'll pay you a gracious amount for doing so."

Fox nodded and gave the General the thumbs-up, "You can count on us, General!" General Pepper nodded and saluted them again before ending the transmission. Falco scoffed, "What, we running escort missions for payment now?" Fox glanced at him, "If you don't like it, Falco, you're welcome to sit it out, I'm sure Katt could use the company." Falco's eyes widened at the mention, "Ah, what the hell, I'll do anything for some cash." Fox gave the slightest sneer, prompting Krystal to roll her eyes with a grin, 'Men.' Fox turned to Peppy, who announced, "Prepare for Hyperspace jump."

As the massive starship disappeared in a brilliant explosion of light, a lone asteroid drifted by. Atop the asteroid, a single being observed the teleportation with interest. The being, a mechanoid of an unknown, yet familiar design, glanced back to one of the planets present within this star system. The mechanoid tapped the side of its head, where an ear would be present, and in a masculine voice, spoke, "I think I've found a lead. I'll tell you more about it once I return." A voice on the other end replied back. He then spoke again, "Space-Bridge... please..." A swirling tear of spacetime appeared in front of the mechanoid. He leaped off the asteroid, then began contorting and moving as various pieces externally and internally disconnected, reconnected, rotated, folded, unfolded, until his new form resembled that of a local aerodynamic vehicle, the Arwing. The new form jetted into the swirling light, which vanished shortly afterward.

On the other side of the warp, the Arwing flew out, then began hovering as around him, other mechanoids, three males and two females, turned toward him. The hovering Arwing mechanoid shapeshifted back into his humanoid form to give his report, "I was spying in this star system's asteroid belt, and I may have found a lead on his location. According to a transmission I had intercepted, archaeologists on a planet named Sauria have located some sort of powerful technology that they'd never seen before. They hired their elite to guard it, and I have reason to suspect that they may have found ancient Cybertronian technology." One of the mechanoids, a tall and slim robot clad in green armor with a chain-gun mounted on his shoulder, addressed the triple-changer. "Starwing, do you know of the location of Sauria within this star system?" Starwing shook his head, "The vessel I was tracking teleported before I could lock onto it, Hound."

Author's Notes

\- I've decided to rewrite this story from the previous version due to personal feelings that the plot was getting convoluted and out of control. This includes the exclusion of a number of OCs that I couldn't quite keep track of, as well as the removal of certain subplots as part of the Continuity Trimming. Starwing will remain as an OC character for now, but the remaining characters will be filled in with Canon and Pseudocanon Characters (Such as Nightbird and characters from the cancelled TFUniverse MOTA game). Feedback is appreciated!


	2. Chapter 1: Transport

=Chapter 1: Transport=

~x~X~x~X~x~

"Right this way, Star Fox." The attendant made a subtle gesture with her hand for the Main Star Fox crew to follow her. The Main crew, Fox, Falco, Krystal, and Slippy, followed the attendant through the cargo hold in one of the Convoy shuttles. Currently, the Secondary crew, Saru, Miyu, Fay, and Katt, were outside the shuttle in their Arwings, providing escort. The attendant met with an avian Lylatian, who introduced himself once he noticed them, "Hello, Star Fox, I'm Arnold Reginald, head Archaeologist of the project." He had a distinct accent, a deep tone resonating with experience and the vague signs of old age, along with an enunciation of the "tuh" sounds and the pronunciation of the "ah" sounds as "oh" sounds in his diction. The attendant followed him as he brought them around the corner. There, the Star Fox crew saw just what they meant by 'Technology they had never seen before.'

Before them stood a mechanical giant. While they were familiar with giant robot suits, this was new to them in so many ways. It had an unusual armor style, oddly smooth and almost organic in appearance. Most of the armor above the being's midriff was gray with some black accents on the joints and on the face. In the cracks of the armor, there were visible mechanisms completely unfamiliar even to Slippy, as the Star Fox team's mechanic. The face had a black visor of some kind obscuring it's face, if it had one. The being looked so out of place, even when compared to Andross' armada's mechs, that the only word to describe it was alien. "We're still not sure how it works, or why it looks like what it does, and scanning it does so little to help. We're afraid to try and open it up though, mostly because it's technology is so far outside our grasp that it could damage something." Arnold explained as the Main crew stood in awe. Slippy made his presence known with a question, "Can I see the scans?" Arnold nodded, "Not sure what good it'll do ya, but go on ahead." Arnold turned and called another over, "Steve! Go show the toad the scans!" A lupine Lylatian grumbled and waved at Slippy to follow him. When Slippy left, the remaining Star Fox crew continued to listen to Arnold explaining more about what his side of the research had uncovered.

Outside the Convoy, the Secondary crew flew alongside the transports, keeping an eye out for anything. On her com-link, Miyu heard Saru's low pitched voice ask, "See anything yet?" Miyu shook her head, regardless of whether the video-cam was on or not, and replied, "Not yet." Fay's voice, a slightly higher pitch than Miyu's, then commented, "I haven't seen anything but stars, and they sure are pretty." Miyu's mouth curved into a smile, "Just like you." Fay's flustered voice came through, "Miyu! Not now!" Still grinning, the lynx rolled her eyes, "It's not like the rest of Star Fox didn't already know." The reply that followed made Miyu chuckle, "B-but, what if someone else finds out?" Miyu continued back, "If they do, that's their problem. Besides, with our line of work, I wanna make every minute- no, every second count. Because you never know when the next plasma beam is gonna sink your ship, or the next bomb destroys your Landmaster."

Fay leaned back in her seat and sighed, "I know, and I understand, but it can wait until we complete a mission, right?" Miyu's tomboyish voice echoed back to her, "Maaaybe..." Saru soon spoke, "Sorry to interrupt your touching moment, but there's an unidentified ship up ahead. Permission to open a com-link channel?" Miyu's voice answered his inquiry without a pause, "Granted." Fay steered her Arwing around and followed the gaze of the other Arwing pilots. At first glance, they saw nothing, until Saru spoke aloud, "Attention, unidentified spacecraft, drop your stealth field and identify yourself and your purpose here." The spacecraft did drop its stealth field, revealing three red and white Wolven along with thirteen starships of an unknown model and a bunch of spaceships that were familiar to the Star Fox crew. Through the com-link, a gruff and low toned voice identified himself, "You should remember the three of us very well, Star Fox." Miyu couldn't believe who she had just heard, "How the hell are you still alive?!" Wolf's answer wasn't satisfying, "That doesn't matter. What does is that you hand over the cargo, or else me, Star Wolf, and the Seekers are going to blast your asses into the next galaxy."

An alarm rang as the Convoy violently shook, knocking over small crates and Lylatians. Fox regained his footing and helped Krystal back up, before contacting the Secondary crew, "What's going on out there?" Miyu answered immediately, "Star Wolf attacked, they want the technology that we're escorting! They've also brought along a group of fighters that are really doing us in right now! How soon can you get out here?" Fox furrowed his eyebrows, "We'll be ready shortly." The Convoy shook again, and Fox was forcefully disconnected as Slippy arrived. Fox asked the toad, "Can we get this ship into Hyperspace?" Slippy shook his head, "Not with all these fighters around us, we'll never get away from them at this rate!" Fox turned and barked orders, "Everyone get into your Arwings! Krystal, Falco, we'll take care of Star Wolf. Slippy, accompany the others and fight the others!"

"Is that the best you got?" Miyu yelled as she shot down another one of the ruffians that Star Wolf had hired. One of the unknown models flew close. This one in particular was different from the others in that it was skinnier and longer. Miyu jerked around in the cockpit as the starship rammed her from the left side with its own wings. Miyu banked her Arwing right and tore away from the spacecraft. She pulled up and looped around the starship as it tried to chase after her. She got behind it and fired a charged shot. It struck home and Miyu cheered. Her cheer faltered when she noticed that the starship had sustained no visible damage. It turned to face her and fired at her. A few shots struck her Arwing and warnings appeared on her canopy. On instinct, she tried to roll out of the way, only to be surprised when the starship trailed her, firing on her side. Miyu turned and fired a bomb at the craft. The craft dodged, then stopped firing momentarily. Miyu tried to fire on the ship, being disappointed when a system scan showed her weapons were damaged. The ship then shifted from it's current form into a being with green armor around her legs and thighs, purple armor above her waist, a set of wings angled up on her back, and a black helmet with red eyes flaring to life like fire. The third pair of wings that was in the mecha's other form were absorbed into the structure along with the entire front, except for the canopy that was now mounted in her chest.

The being hovered around Miyu for an instant, then charged at her. Miyu tried her weapons again, then flinched and shielded herself as the being closed in. A clash of forms stopped the being's rapid advance and Miyu looked to see an Arwing. It turned after ramming the being, who shifted back into it's jet form, and the high pitched voice of Slippy asked, "Hey! You alright, Miyu?" Miyu breathed out, "I'm fine, but my guns are shot, I can't fight in this condition." Slippy's tone became laced with worry, "Head to the Convoy's docking bay, it's the closest place we can dock. Once we land, I'll fix your weapons." They turned and weaved through the firefight. Once they docked, Miyu spoke to Slippy, "Thanks for saving me back there. Your flight skills really are improving." Slippy hopped out of his Arwing and grabbed his toolkit, "Oh, that wasn't skill, I was in the heat of the moment when I struck it by accident."

Starwing observed the fight from afar, with two of his allies on either side. Macro and Stiletto, the latter a two-wheeler and the former a . Starwing turned to Stiletto and asked her, "Lieutenant, permission to join the fight?" The two-wheeler shook her head, "We're already risking everything to get to that technology, being discovered by the natives at this point will lead to problems that we can't afford to deal with." Starwing gestured to the Seekers as they shifted forms in the fray, "But, the natives probably already know about our kind! And they need to know what they're up against." Stiletto rested her hand on Starwing's shoulder, "They do need to know, but I don't want to risk sending our only Triple Changer out there and find out later that the natives scrapped you for your tech or shot down over some remote location!" Starwing growled, then turned back to the fight, mumbling to himself. Stiletto let go of him and he slumped in defeat.

Stiletto gestured for Macro to follow her optics. They surveyed the transport ships from their vantage point. "It looks like there's a docking bay right there," Stiletto observed, pointing toward an opening as two Arwings flew into it, "You could get in there and make sure that the objective is in there. Secure the area if you can, and I'll aid you once you call." Spindrift nodded, "I guess we'll use the Space Bridge to get it through, right?" Stiletto nodded, "As soon as you're in, I'll send Starwing in after you. The way I see it, if one of us gets caught, then one of us can get the objective and the other can rescue the captured one." Macro leaped off of Stiletto, then disappeared as his Camouflage Shield activated, using his own momentum to propel himself into the opening docking bay to follow the Arwings coming in for a landing.

The two-wheeler then glanced around, "Starwing, go in aft- Starwing?" The Triple Changer wasn't around, prompting Stiletto to look around. She finally picked up on his Spark beat, and realized with horrified, widening optics that he had ignored her orders not to engage. She contacted him through her com-link, "What the hell do you think you're doing, Starwing?!" Starwing's reply never came, and she realized that he had blocked her transmission. "You piece of scrap. You better survive this so I can kick your aft later."


	3. Chapter 2: Unexpected Allies

=Chapter 2: Unexpected Allies=

~x~X~x~X~x~

Stiletto soared into the docking bay of the Convoy carefully, hiding within the Camouflage Shield that Macro had deployed and transformed into her motorcycle mode, while opening a com-link channel to her partner, "Starwing jumped the gun again, but I can work this to our advantage as long as he stays in vehicle mode. He buys us time, then we bridge him out with the technology once it's been secured." Macro's indifferent tone replied, "He did it again? Someday, that mech is gonna get himself killed." Stiletto would have nodded were she in robot mode, but went silent as two Arwings flew into the docking bay and landed. The Camouflage Shield should have projected the appearance of an Arwing and she was hopeful that it wouldn't attract attention.

Slippy hopped out of his Arwing and got to work on Miyu's immediately, while Miyu got out of her Arwing to let him do the analysis. She hit the ground, then took note of the black Arwing in the hangar. She turned to Slippy, then back to the Arwing, then dismissed it as some new model. She paused as soon as she thought that, as that was what she thought about the ones outside before they attacked her and her team. She turned back, then drew her blaster, regardless of whether or not she would be able to do damage to it. She looked directly at the Arwing, almost daring it to do something.

Stiletto registered the slight threat posed by the Lylatian's weapon, but recognized it as a provocation. The Lylatian must have suspected her, and was trying to coax her out of her Alt-mode, which she realized meant that the Camouflage Shield must've glitched out. She stayed perfectly still, even going so far as to shut down her com-link to Macro to prevent discovery. Eventually, the Lylatian seemed content that Stiletto was just a normal Arwing and began walking away. Once she was out of range, and Stiletto was certain that her partner wasn't watching, quietly unfolded into Robot mode, slipped out of the Camouflage Shield as it powered down, and observed from behind a large stack of boxes. She glanced behind her as a door opened, a door large enough for her to walk through. Understandably, they were large so they could move Optimus Prime's body through, even on it's side or back, meaning she was small enough to go through. She sneaked through the door and closed it behind her. Stilleto then reopened her channel with Macro, "How's it going?"

"I'd love to tell you that we're done here and we can leave, but there's an issue here." Stiletto's optics widened, "Tell me." She glanced back at the door as Macro replied, "Well, the objective that you sent me to secure? It vanished, poof." Stiletto sighed, "People, especially Cybertronians, don't just vanish, or poof, except for Skywarp and a couple others."

Macro checked around the empty room once again, "Well, you better believe it, because I'm staring at an empty room. There are residual traces of Energon in the area, most likely a Transwarp, like a Ground bridge or Space bridge, but using an alternate technology relying on-" Stiletto interrupted him, "I know, Mr. Exposition, I know. Can you trace it?" Macro shook his head and answered, "I can't trace Transwarp. It... well, you already know why. It could be anywhere in the entire star system and we won't know it." A voice behind him surprised him for a moment, "Well, we'll just need to find out where it is now and if there's more Cybertronian tech." He glanced behind him to see Stiletto walking into the cargo hold. Given Macro's speciality in stealth, it was somewhat out of place for him to be startled.

"Wolf, our target's been lost, Something slipped it out from under our noses." The Seeker's voice echoed into Wolf's cockpit. Wolf growled back, "Then, they had a back-up plan. We will track it down, but first things first, we've got a score to settle." The Seeker retorted immediately, "They are a waste of energy, Wolf O'Donnell, and as the commander of the Seekers, it is my job to determine when to attack and when to retreat." Wolf then attempted to talk the Seeker into his place, "Listen here, bucket o' bolts, I'm the leader of Star Wolf, and while you serve with me, I am your superior! You do not move, you do not breathe, you do not retreat unless I say so." The Seeker he spoke with, one of the alien jets wearing red, white, and blue colors, flew up toward Wolf's Wolven, then shapeshifted into his Robot mode, then tapped the canopy as he spoke, "We are partners in this deal, I have just as much power over you as you over me, meat-bag hairball. I can call off the attack at the drop of an Energon chip and I can start one under the same circumstances. My Seekers are a powerful enough armada that no matter how many bodies you throw at us, you'll run out before you get rid of us. Now call off the assault." Wolf sighed, "Fine." Starscream moved aside while Wolf turned his Wolven around. He muttered over his shoulder, "Asshole," toward the Seeker commander, then called his team and armada off. While he flew off, Starscream muttered back, "Fleshy." He then glanced back as one of the Arwings stopped before him, then shifted to his own Robot mode. Starwing growled and was ready to attack, then froze as Starscream told him, "Put your guns away, Triple Changer, this fight is over."

Starwing grumbled, then shifted back to his Arwing form for what good it would do at this point. He was then contacted by Stiletto, "What the hell was that out there, Rookie? I told you not to engage." Starwing's reply did little to satisfy her, "I was only doing what I thought was a good idea." Stiletto paused for a second, "I specifically said not to engage the enemy, regardless of who's fighting who, because we haven't got an idea of how the natives would react to us, screw-ball!" The insult flew over Starwing's head, "What about the twins? They're natives, they reacted quite well in our presence." Stiletto's exasperated groan preceded her next sentence, "Two members of a species doesn't represent the entire Primus-damn species. They probably have no voice in their society, and they only act like that because of the circumstances that introduced us to them. For all we know, they'll probably gut you when they find out, and your recklessness has guaranteed that they'll find out, or do some other horrible things."

A surprise came to Starwing in the form of a transmission, from a native registered under Fox McCloud, according to the com-link ID, "Hey, whoever you are, thanks for helping us back there. They had us on the ropes and we might have actually lost." Starwing returned the thanks, impersonating a more organic voice as close to legitimate as possible, "No problem, Fox. Maybe we'll see each other again some time." Fox then asked the Triple Changer, "What about a name? Aren't you gonna give us some sort of long-range contact info?"

"Why is that important?"

"You're a good pilot, we could use someone with your determination. Wouldn't it help to have contact information?"

"I'm just a passerby, I saw the commotion and decided to help out. If we cross paths again in similar circumstances, maybe we can talk, but I have somewhere to be right now."

A/N

\- I know I said I was trimming down on OCs in the story, and I am keeping with that promise, but it is a bit of a surprise who the twins that Starwing speaks of are.


	4. Chapter 3: Uneasy Truth

=Chapter 3: Uneasy Truth=

~x~X~x~X~x~

Leaping from asteroid to asteroid, using the micro-gravity to her advantage, the being slowly made her way toward a construct, an abandoned starship of grand proportions, the kind that her people traveled in, so he said. The being bounced off another asteroid, aiming for the ship as it opened it's docking bay. She sailed in and aligned herself through the use of low-power thrusters as the artificial gravity generator turned on. The docking bay doors closed behind her and lights turned on, revealing her off-black armor, small, lithe frame, and yellow optics on a face concealed by a black battle-mask. The generator in the ship was worn down, so not everything was in working condition, the hallways were only just navigable, the artificial gravity worked in some areas, and even then, half of them weren't properly coordinated, but the low energy meant that they were generating low levels of gravity.

She walked down the hallways until she arrived on the bridge, where a taller, slimmer mech clad in blue turned to face her, saying not a word, and yet his very presence held an aura of satisfaction that the two-wheeler found to mean he was congratulating her. Nightbird held an arm across her chest and bowed, "The protoform should be arriving any second now." The taller one, his face obscured by the visor he wore, stared ahead as a blip sounded with the appearance of a hologram, showing the ship they were on, along with a green dot blinking, the signal of a Transwarp portal opening and delivering its precious cargo. The taller stared at the blinking dot for a few moments, then turned to address Nightbird again, his silent demands clear to his subordinate. Nightbird nodded, "Yes sir, Soundwave."

The doors to the Energon storage opened and the tall one stepped in, followed by Nightbird. He walked up to the newest addition: A Protoform, carefully preserved in stasis, a body ready for a Spark. Nightbird willed herself into asking, "Why is it here?" Soundwave rested a hand on the femme's shoulder, and stared at her in such a way that Nightbird was inclined to believe that The femme glanced up at him, "Would they suspect you?" The mech shook his head. Soundwave briefly glanced away, remembering that the last time anyone had seen him was his disappearance into the Shadowzone. Nightbird stretched to touch his cheek-plate, "Cheer up, these bots probably haven't even seen you before, you could easily make allies out of them." Soundwave's shoulders slumped in response.

Nightbird groaned, "Oh, come on, at least say something." Soundwave turned to the femme and briefly took in her form. He knew there was a reason that he chose her as his companion, but sometimes, even he wasn't sure why. Nightbird started walking out, "I'm heading to the break room to hang out with the Vehicons, catch ya later." Nightbird walked out of the storage room, leaving Soundwave alone with the Protoform. Soundwave placed sharp digits on the glass container the Protoform resided in. Silence had never felt so loud to him.

~x~X~x~X~x~

Starscream turned toward the green camouflage jet flying into the base, which shifted its form into a robot more or less exactly like himself, named Acid Storm. The Seeker leader strode up to Acid Storm, "Report!" Acid Storm saluted him, "Nothing as of now." Starscream grinned, "Gooood, now go recharge, I have some things to discuss with our employer." Acid Storm sighed and walked off toward the part of the hangar where the other Seekers were resting, hooked up to Energon tanks while they slept in Alt-mode. Starscream could swear he heard the rain-maker mutter, "I'm always doomed to be a background character..."

Wolf signed off another paper, this one ensuring payment to their currently only supplier of weapons, then sent the delivery fox off. He knew it was coming eventually, and he wasn't surprised by Starscream's looming shadow glaring at him from behind the crates. He turned to the Seeker, "What now?" Starscream stepped out from behind the crates, "We need to talk, Wolf. About the previous conflict." Wolf scoffed, "Am I wrong for trying to complete the mission?" The sarcasm flew over Starscream's head, despite his extensive familiarity with the concept, "No, but what really pisses me off is the fact that you were no longer focusing on the mission once it was declared a failure." Wolf crossed his arms, "So? How is that your problem?" Starscream got on his right knee and placed his left hand over it, "Wolf, if our conversation in that fight hasn't already told you anything, I am your strategist, and my job is to advise when to attack and when to retreat. Your hellhole of a star system barely contains enough Energon for us to survive here, but you see fit to waste energy chasing a mere grudge."

Wolf grumbled and rolled his eyes, "You may be useful as a strategist, but I am still the leader here, and I will waste energy as I please if it means achieving our goals. If you have a problem with that, then you can send your soldiers back home every time someone miss a shot." Starscream pounced toward Wolf, startling the Cornerian, "I have every right to give a damn about my kin, as opposed to you. You are a selfish commander who treats his subordinates as cannon fodder, except for your inner circle. My Seekers and I share a connection that your simple, organic mind could never understand, I need to keep them safe! I demand that you either start listening to what I have to say, or else our contract is over!" Wolf recovered from the surprise as Starscream stood up and returned to his brethren. The lupine had a dastardly thought make itself known and he began forming a contingency, _Oh I can make sure that you keep up your end of the contract now. Thanks for the info, Starscream_.

~x~X~x~X~x~

Gravity was a welcome sensation for Macro. He was the first through the Space-bridge and as soon as he breached the other side, he stretched and grinned. "Feels great to be on solid ground again!" He stepped into the base as Stiletto emerged, walking with a relaxed and straightforward gait. After her, Starwing followed in Arwing mode, cruising with the directional thrusters upgrade that most aerial Cybertronians had. He shifted to Robot mode once he was further into the base. Personalized designs were much clearer now. Starwing himself had a primarily white color scheme, the only blue in his entire body was centralized on his waist and thighs, as well a bit of blue armor on his chest. He had the back-mounted wings that were typical with aerial Cybertronians, the cockpit from his Arwing form, which was shared with his other Alt-mode, the Landmaster, was mounted on his back, with the front wheels for the Landmaster on his thighs, and the treads themselves composing the armor for his lower legs. The Landmaster cannon wasn't visible, it was absorbed into his body during transformation, though that didn't mean he couldn't use it in Robot mode, even if he preferred the Arwing lasers more.

Starwing immediately began walking off, when he felt a hand grab his shoulder and turn him around. Hound stood before him, irritated, "What the hell was that back there?" Starwing opened his mouth to speak, then closed it out of respect as he spoke again, "I had made it clear prior to the mission not to call attention to yourself! As your superior, I expect an order to be followed, regardless of any sort of grudge you may have had!" Starwing glanced away. His optic-ridges furrowed and he glared back at him, "You wouldn't understand since you were never on Trypticon Station! Starscream was my superior then, and he was magnificent then! I would have worshiped him! He turned me over to Megatron and I just barely escaped!" Hound put him in his place, "I wasn't stationed on Trypticon Station because I was busy guarding Iacon from the Decepticons' many attempts at claiming it! I was successful in that regard because I didn't let my personal issues get to me! You should take a hint and get your head out of your aft, soldier, because I won't be held responsible for you being immature."

Hound got out of Starwing's personal space, then stormed off. Macro stared briefly, then began inching away in the opposite direction, excusing himself, "I'm just... gonna go see how the- um- our organic friends are doing..." He turned around and bumped into a shorter, hot-pink 'bot with the body of a two-wheeler. Cameo scooted aside for Macro, then strolled up to Starwing, "Mission failed?" Starwing glared back, "No shit Nightbeat, what's your next case?" The "Nightbeat" insult flew right over Cameo's head and she asked, "It takes quite a lot for Hound's patience to run out. Wanna talk about it?" Starwing shook his head, "Why don't you go bother Macro or something?" Cameo crossed her arms, "I don't recall you ever being this grumpy before." Starwing huffed, "You would know if-"

"If what? If I had been screwed over by Starscream? I overheard you two, and it's not hard when you're both yelling. I may have been lucky enough to avoid it, but let me tell you now... even Megatron had to deal with Starscream. If you two think you're so special just because you both were on the business end of his weapons, think about the many, many others he manipulated."

Starwing sighed, "Fine. I'll work on it." Cameo grinned, happy to , "Great! Now, I'm gonna go see if Pitstop needs help tuning up." She glanced behind her, then practically ran off into some other part of the base.

~x~X~x~X~x~

Fox sighed and leaned back in his seat as the docking clamps guided his Arwing into the hangar. He knew that not every mission ended in success, but that didn't mean it didn't affect him personally. The canopy opened and he vaulted out. Krystal was waiting for him, while Slippy was waiting for him to leave his Arwing so the toad could perform maintenance. Falco had gone off somewhere, though for reasons that Fox didn't need to try hard to think about. Krystal, noticing the distracted look in his face, asked him, "Is something the matter, Fox?" The mercenary leader gave her half a smile, body language that meant he appreciated her concern, then told her, "It's just... I'm so used to us succeeding at our missions that I've forgotten what losing feels like." Krystal patted his back, "It's okay, we all have flaws. Though, we half-won, as they didn't get that... thing." Fox leaned his head to the side, "Maybe, but someone else did, so we still lost." They walked through the doors out of the docking bay, leaving Slippy to work, and Fox perked up when his nose picked up on the appealing scent emanating from the kitchen.

"Kitchen" was a rather crude term to describe it, as it really was just a fridge, a small stove, and a counter. Usually, either Fox or Slippy would be in here, the latter mainly for ransacking the fridge. Unusually, it was Falco, which surprised both vulpines, even Krystal, who was rarely in here, still used the kitchen enough that it wasn't a surprise. Falco glanced at Fox, "Oh, hey Fox." Krystal excused herself while Fox wandered into the kitchen, "What're you doing here?" Falco went into the freezer half of the fridge and made a snide remark, "Cooking." Fox gave him a blatant, "Interesting." Falco closed the freezer, having procured a choice ingredient, some frozen meat slabs. Fox's left ear twitched on instinct, "Huh. You know, I saw a lot of things in you, Falco, but a cook is something new." Falco dumped the meat slabs in the pan and replied, "Just a little habit I'd mused over during high school."

Meanwhile, in her room, Krystal had just finished changing into some pale red pajamas with the intention of catching a nap. Even when she had pulled the covers over her, clutching a small stuffed toy bear that Saru had given her as a present some time after joining, thoughts of the fight kept coming back to her. She had gotten used to seeing humongous mecha even before Sauria. What she could remember of her childhood on Cerenia, she remembered seeing at least one or two Cerenian mechs. But the beings that she had fought in their last fight, they weren't piloted, nor were they remote-controlled, otherwise she would have sensed it. She wasn't too sure what they were, but she was certain that they weren't from around here, unless Star Wolf had developed an A.I. powerful enough for such complex, graceful movements they were capable of performing, shifting from form to form effortlessly as they did and still pushing through her and her teammates. Still, something about that bugged her, the thought of possibly an entire armada of beings that could mask themselves from her. The mysterious pilot than joined them was also masked from her telepathic radar, and she couldn't help being irritated and fearful at the notion. She tried to dispel the thoughts temporarily and realized just how tired she really was. She nuzzled the bear closer and soon enough, she fell into a dreamless sleep.


	5. Chapter 4: Reflection

=Chapter 4: Reflection=

~x~X~x~X~x~

"Krystal?" A hand shook her shoulder gently and Krystal twitched awake, eyes half-open. She turned to see Fox and asked him, "Something wrong?" Fox briefly looked at her door, "You slept through the meal, so I think it would make sense for me to ask you that." Krystal held the stuffed bear to her chest, "I... guess I'm more tired than I thought. My intent was to take a short nap before the meal, conserve energy. You understand, right?" Fox grinned at her, "Yeah." His grin lowered into a concerned frown, "Still, we were a bit worried... I mean, Falco took it kinda personally when you didn't show up, but we saved some of the roast for ya." Krystal stifled a yawn and replied, "I'll make sure to try it when I'm more awake..." Fox understood and started heading for the door. He glanced back at her as she curled up again, "Sleep well, Krystal..." He saw her mouth pull into a smile even with her closed eyes, then left.

Fay's eyes shot open and it took her a second to adjust to being awake. Once she did, she realized that Miyu, who she was used to having arms wrapped around her midriff, wasn't on the bed with her. Pulling the blanket up over her chest, she sat up and murmured while rubbing an eye, "Miyu?" Receiving no answer prompted her to call the lynx's name again. Her reply was answered in the form of Miyu opening the door and smiling at her, "Something wrong, love?" The poodle was visible relieved to see Miyu, even more so to know that she had put on something, a red workout bra and red sweat pants, "Just wondering where you went." Miyu told her, "Nature called." She pounced Fay and pressed her lips against Fay's for a second. She let Fay breathe and got off her, and slid under the covers. She slid one arm under Fay's slender form, and another over, and grabbed her fur, pulling Fay closer to Miyu. Fay shivered a bit, the paw-pads on Miyu's hands were cold and her fur slightly damp from cleaning them.

Miyu wasn't lying, but she had taken the opportunity when she was out and about to think. She had been thinking about that black Arwing in the docking bay during their previous mission, it's similarities to the ones that attacked them, and its disappearance. Slippy was working on her Arwing's weapons at the time, and she had explored the entire docking bay, wondering where it could have gone, as she never recalled seeing, hearing, or feeling any form of take-off or teleportation other than their own. It bothered her, the fact that something so big could just disappear from under their noses, much like that other object in storage that the Main Crew had told them about. Miyu had disregarded those thoughts temporarily, as she had Fay to pay attention to currently.

Peppy sighed and leaned back in his seat, briefly wondering how many times he did that nowadays. ROB was currently operating at full speed, following the old hare's directions. That wasn't to say that Peppy wasn't also combing the virtual streams of data that was the Holo-net. He was finally starting to feel the strain of sleep deprivation coming on. What were they looking for? Anything related to any sort of transforming mecha like the ones they had encountered. Currently, the only sources they had to go on were a number of questionably vague "firsthand accounts," a few low-quality photos that were believed to be "evidence," some representations in drawings and/or animations, and only a couple semi-reliable news sources that still didn't offer much help. The only clear picture that they had was a picture of higher clarity than the others, this one showed a warehouse at night that was lit up, possibly because the warehouse was used for storage. Standing off to the side of the sliding door was a very tall, bulky figure enshrouded by the darkness, save for what Peppy could only guess was its eyes, which glowed a brilliant purple, the same color that a few other lines placed scarce throughout the being's armor. The light from the warehouse revealed a small portion of the figure's armor, it was dark golden, but that was only visible on part of the being's lower leg. Peppy clicked back into that image in the hopes that maybe he had missed something. It was difficult to see much in the darkness of the picture, but he could see what looked like a desert in the background, which narrowed it down to Papetoon or Katina, which had deserts, or Eladard, a lesser known planet that had lots of (now inactive) factories and storage facilities.

~x~X~x~X~x~

A being stepped through the open Space-bridge and onto the alien soil. He was enshrouded by a cloak as big as his physical structure, enough to conceal his face given the circumstances. He was surrounded by other mechanical beings, primal insect-like monsters from his own planet. They were Insecticons, led by a group of their own who, unlike their brethren, maintained a sense of individuality. One of those individuals had come to meet him as the Space-bridge closed. She arrived in her helicopter form, then shifted into one of her Robot modes, this one with many extra legs that she used to intimidate. It wouldn't work on him, but she still tried anyway. The being, garbed in black armor with some purple accents under her armor and monochromatic pink eyes stylized like she had hexagonal compound eyes. Airachnid stalked up to the first being, "Well well, someone didn't keep to his end of the deal." The first being countered in a calm, resonant voice immune to her seductress tones, "I was going to honor my deal and the protoform was to be yours, but someone got to him first." Airachnid shifted to her bipedal form, "Excuses excuses, you failed and that is what matters." The being countered again, "What are you going to do about it? Try to bail me out? The last thing I want is to ask for help from a primitive mechanoid like you and your ilk." Airachnid stretched up to him and brushed a pointer digit across his masked face, "You asked for our help with your own mission. You've already gone to those lengths."

The being still stood stoically, "If you had a processor advanced enough, you could tell what I meant by that." Airachnid was tempted to lift his cloak off and retorted, "Oh how you wound me." She sneered, "I wanted to tell you that you must be rid of him or else we will come to deal with him and you personally." The cloaked being scoffed, "I'll be a Terrorcon before I am defeated by the likes of you." Airachnid's sneer disappeared and a scowl replaced it, "You need to watch where you tread, Autobot, I have slain many of your kind for less." The Space-bridge reopened and she gestured toward it, "Now get out of my sight before I have to find a new agent to replace you."

The cloaked being vanished through the portal and Airachnid gestured for the Insecticon group to follow her into a Ground-bridge as the Space-bridge closed. She stepped through and was met with a spacious, vertical tunnel connecting various smaller tunnels going other directions. The blue glow of Energon crystals was visible in some caverns, brighter in some, dimmer in others. She switched to her spider Robot mode and crawled down the walls as the Insecticons following her went off to see what they could accomplish around the place. She climbed lower into the tunnel, reaching the bottom in little time, where she was greeted by a group of Insecticons.

One of the Insecticons, Kickback, spoke to Airachnid first, "He is stalling." The Insecticon leader nodded, "Yes, I suspect that he is trying to back out of the deal, he thinks that we're nothing more than beasts." One of the Insecticons behind Kickback huffed, "Perhaps he sees us as a means to an end, he did say quite clearly that he intended to rule Cybertron once all resistance was gone. Maybe he's a Functionist." Another one sighed and muttered, "I do not wanna be in a class system again, especially when many consider us nothing more than mindless beasts..." Airachnid chuckled, "He doesn't realize that we don't want to go back to Cybertron." She turned to Kickback, "This planet is still largely unknown to the locals, as it is just beyond their planetary system, it is rich in Energon and it gives us time to build up our forces. I want you to make an attack plan for when we invade the planets within." The addressed Insecticon agreed to it and crawled away. She dismissed the remaining Insecticons to follow Kickback, then turned to return her focus toward a project of her own.

~x~X~x~X~x~

Soundwave strode into the break room, a single Energon cube in hand, processed into a liquid form and utilizing a self-sustaining force-field frame so he could drink it. The force-field required minimal energy to start it up, but they only really used for special occasions. The recent events counted as a special occasion. He sat down next to one group of Vehicons who, unlike earlier models from the war, had purple helmets stylized after the Decepticon symbol, meaningless as it was now, but a sign that they worked together as a team. Nightbird was sitting across from him, gossiping with a fellow Vehicon. Soundwave's visor was temporarily removed so he too could enjoy the Energon they had.

Soundwave observed the others as they eventually started returning to their duties, buzzed but not over-energized. Only Nightbird, himself, and a couple Vehicons, one Miner and one Sniper, remained. The former Decepticon Spymaster observed Nightbird carefully. He knew of her reputation on the battle-field, he had seen her in action, Megatron had even hired her to aid the Decepticons, she was utterly ruthless in combat and out of combat. He understood that with the war largely considered over, he would have understood someone's personality changing. However, Nightbird's abrupt, complete and total reversal of her personality just bugged him with how it didn't seem to fit her at all. He slipped his visor back on and looked around to make certain that no-one was paying attention to him. He silently excused himself from the room to return to his duties, secretly hiding outside the break room to observe the Vehicons' interactions with Nightbird, searching for proof to his suspicions.

For a long time, Nightbird and the Vehicons only stared at each other in silence. Nightbird finally stood up and spoke, "I'm gonna go see if there's something to do." One of the Vehicons chuckled, "Considering the state of this ship, there's always something to." Nightbird satisfied his attempt at humor with a half-hearted laugh. She left before she could embarrass herself from the awkward silence that followed. The Vehicons stared at each other for a moment, deciding to enjoy their fleeting moments of relaxation a bit longer, then stopped when one of them received a notification from a Vehicon needing his help with something. The Miner stood up and left the break room to help the Vehicon out, deciding he had a long enough break anyway.

[Author's Notes]

\- Feedback is appreciated!

→ After reading on TVTropes that Miyu was voted the most likely to be gay according to a poll, I have decided to make that little fact a part of my fanon for Miyu.


	6. Chapter 5: Fatal Blow

=Chapter 5: Fatal Blow=

~x~X~x~X~x~

The Space-bridge opened up and Soundwave stepped through, tailed by a group of Vehicons. While the Vehicons guarded the deactivating Space-bridge device, Soundwave went deeper into the Energon Mines to check on the miners. There was a second team consisting of Jet Vehicons that had gone down to the planet as well, to scout out a base that Soundwave had deduced as an abandoned native base.

On his way there, he ran into one of the miners, who was attempting to wrench a small crystal out of a rock. Soundwave ushered the Vehicon miner out of his way for a second, then turned to the Energon crystal. Two of his tentacles snaked out from his torso and drilled into the rock around the crystal, loosened it enough for the Spymaster to grab, then handed it to the miner, who stood awestruck for a good few minutes. The silent Spymaster continued deeper into the mines, and was soon contacted by Nightbird, "Soundwave, there's some signals at the native outpost, your old friends are here." Soundwave showed a few pictures of a few Autobots he was particularly familiar with, inquiring about them. Nightbird dismissed the answer, "I meant the Seekers. I intercepted a communication, they said something about following a new Spark signature here." Soundwave took a moment to process the information, then sent a message with his orders to the two-wheeler. Nightbird accepted the order, "Roger."

"All Vehicons report to the Space-bridge Control immediately!" The call rang through the com-links of all Vehicons present in the mines, who were soon gathered in front of the Space-bridge. Soundwave rallied the Vehicons around him and opened a small Ground-bridge toward the outpost as Nightbird relayed the situation to them.

The Starscream he was expecting to see was the grovel-feigning, traitorous, scheming Cybertronian that he worked alongside, but that was gone, replaced by his former Great War body. He had decided to go back to that one, the armored one with red, white, and blue armor organized in a familiar pattern that the Spymaster hadn't seen in a long time. Starscream and the 12 Seekers accompanying him noticed Soundwave after a second. Starscream walked past the green one and cyan one in front of him, Acid Storm and Bitstream, and greeted the Spymaster, "Quite a surprise to see you out here." Soundwave was still silent as Nightbird and the Vehicons poured out of the Ground-bridge. The Seeker leader wondered if Soundwave's silence was a challenge and broke the tension with a low rumble, "You're still just as silent as ever. I just cannot understand how you manage to be so quiet now when you were the most annoying voice I'd ever heard back on Cybertron." Soundwave was unimpressed and still, analysing his opponents and determining their weaknesses. Starscream sneered, "If this is a challenge, what makes you think you could win against me when all it took was a human child to outsmart the great Soundwave?"

Starscream raised his arm and pointed at Soundwave and the Vehicons, "Destroy them!" The other Seekers went to action, 9 of them taking to the skies immediately, leaving Sunstorm, Hotlink, Nacelle, and Starscream on the ground. Starscream charged at his former comrade and raised his fist to meet Soundwave's razor-like arm. The Spymaster was not to be outdone as he smacked Starscream's arm away and with a twirl, connected his foot to the side of the Seeker's head with enough force to send him falling backward.

While Starscream and Soundwave battled each other, Nightbird had her hands full with the rest of the Seekers. The term Seeker had many meanings and associations on Cybertron, and one association was their dangerous accuracy and coordination, in the air and on the ground. Nightbird was dealing with the truth behind that association as she blocked a barrage of punches from Nacelle, who traded off with Hotlink as the Vehicons did their best to provide aid to each other and Nightbird against the fight. The Seekers in the sky were plowing through the Jet Vehicons like leaves in a hurricane, and giving the Cybertronians on the ground hell. Nightbird took a moment to observe the Seeker leader and the Spymaster as Soundwave blocked Starscream's fast punches and responded with a jab with his left arm that, had he hit his mark, would've decapitated the Seeker if he hadn't ducked at the last moment. Soundwave then received an encrypted message that he decoded as quickly as possible. Once decoded, he took to the skies in his UAV form, to the surprise of Nightbird, the Vehicons, and the Seekers.

Starscream was enraged, "No-one flees from Starscream!" With that, he transformed into his Cybertronian Jet form and took off after Soundwave, abandoning the battle in favor of finishing his opponent. He fired at Soundwave, his lasers missing the UAV as he performed various aerial stunts to avoid the shots, trying to lose the Seeker. Unfortunately, with there being very little in the way of cover, Soundwave resorted to tapping into the Bridge controls and opened a Ground-bridge from his current position to his intended destination, a plan in mind for how to take out the Seeker. He vanished through the portal and Starscream soon followed through. The Seeker lost track of Soundwave through the Ground-bridge and simply followed the light tunnel toward its destination. When he breeched the other side, he was caught unprepared as Soundwave flew directly at him, rotating himself a quarter-circle and letting his own wings, what became is razor-sharp arms in robot-mode, collide with Starscream's alt-mode's left wing and tear through it without stopping, without denting himself, and forcing the Seeker to transform and crash-land into a cliff-side from the sudden lack of control. The Ground-bridge closed and Soundwave flew around and back to the ground. He transformed back into robot-mode and landed gracefully, as Starscream recovered from his crash.

The Seeker looked up to see Soundwave's imposing figure standing over him, his obscured optics looking down on Starscream. Starscream snarled at the Spymaster, "You think that you're the only one with a few tricks?" He sent a signal that Soundwave couldn't intercept in time and after a moment, a Ground-bridge opened overhead and Thundercracker in alt-mode flew out, breaking the sound barrier as he did. Soundwave stumbled, his sensors were screaming warnings from the sonic boom and he became disoriented. Thundercracker retreated through the Ground-bridge and Starscream took the opportunity to get back up and punch Soundwave right in the face. He stumbled and Starscream followed up with an uppercut connecting with his chest, and by extension Laserbeak. Soundwave flew back a few feet before hitting the ground. Starscream stood up, Energon dripping from his torn wing, and sneered at Soundwave, "You may have been able to take on Airachnid in a one-on-one fight, but you've never fought me before. Starscream's sneer disappeared when he realized Soundwave's visor was showing various images, "You're up to something, aren't you?" Soundwave replayed a clip of Starscream's voice, "You think that you're the only one with a few tricks?" Starscream immediately checked in with Sunstorm, "Status report!" Sunstorm informed him of unfolding events, "The lone Spark we were searching for has been taken. They got to it first." Starscream turned to Soundwave as he got back up. "Well-played," he muttered, before addressing his Seekers, "Seekers, retreat!" He summoned a red Seeker, Red Wing, to pick him up, as his shredded wing prevented him from properly flying. He called off the remaining Seekers and they disappeared through a Space-bridge, having Red Wing pause for a moment as he glanced down toward Soundwave, who was returning to the mine through a Space-bridge, and muttered, "Until next time, Soundwave."

A number of Vehicon corpses were strewn across the desert, they would be brought back to the ship. Nightbird was down, unconscious, with a smoking hole in her back, where the wheel for her alt-mode would be. Strangely enough, Soundwave sensed something off about Nightbird's internal systems that he hadn't picked up before, he picked up the unconscious femme and opened a Ground-bridge, carrying her through.

Once Nightbird was in the med-bay, where a couple Vehicons began tending to her as good as they were capable, Soundwave made a quick check on the spoils of this fight. Safely tucked away inside a container next to the Protoform, a pulsing, red orb of energy, stable now, but only for Primus knows how long. It needed to be inserted into the Protoform, but with Nightbird occupying the med-bay, and access to medical tools unavailable, they were forced to wait until a better time. When he had returned, one of the Vehicon medics showed him a piece of technology that they'd extracted from under the armor on her head, hoping for a reaction. Indeed, he got one, as Soundwave pulled up an old technology thought to have been lost to the ages: Cerebro-shells. These were used by one Insecticon called Bombshell, this particular one outfitted with a tiny Holomatter Paint generator. Soundwave revealed that, as long as Nightbird remained unconscious, he had the opportunity to perform a Cortical Psychic Patch. Someone, at some point, had put a Cerebro-shell in Nightbird's head, for some reason. He was no fool, but he was stumped. Starscream was the first suspect, but the former Seeker had gone so far as to openly challenge, and prove a truly dangerous foe, against him. There were others, like a former Autobot trying to kill him, or a Neutral seeking to erase the pass for some reason. Then, there was Airachnid. She was stuck on one of Cybertron's moons as a Terrorcon, probably a barely functional wreck right now. Galvatron figured that Soundwave and Nightbird's Cortical Psychic Patch session should provide the proof needed for whoever was doing this.

~x~X~x~X~x~

Miyu cornered Fay against the wall and assaulted her with light pecks and tender neck bites. Fay breathed heavily whenever her mouth wasn't caught in Miyu's, and was distracted enough that she didn't realize where Miyu's right hand was going until she felt a draft against her chest, looked down, and realized that Miyu was unzipping her flight suit, and slipping a hand under her suit and her bra. Fay gasped as Miyu gave her another soft, loving bite, a bit lower on her neck. "Miyu..." Fay felt like things were going somewhat fast and tried to get her attention, only for Miyu to apparently ignore her. "Miyu... Miyu, please..." Miyu looked up at Fay, "Yes love?" The lynx slipped her hand out from under Fay's clothes and brushed the collie's cheek. "Miyu... Don't you... don't you think that..." Fay trailed off, unable to finish as Miyu placed a finger on her lips, "You wanna slow down. That's fine, really. But, someday you're gonna want to see more of this." Miyu tugged at the collar of her own flight suit, showing just a bit of fur below her neckline for emphasis. Fay couldn't help grinning, "Maybe..."

The two were unpleasantly surprised when a voice called to them, "Girls, Peppy said he wants everyone on the bridge for his announcement." Miyu turned to Saru and glared, "We're coming, be patient." Saru rolled his eyes and walked away from their room, not bothering to close the door behind him. The lynx sighed and glanced toward Fay, who was still speechless from being interrupted like they were, "Maybe later..."

"Alright everyone, I have an announcement to make- and Falco, it has nothing to do with my wife, those jokes were never funny to begin with-" Falco sighed, thinking, _Does he really know me that well?_ Peppy turned to Miyu and Fay as they arrived, tailing Saru. He continued with what he was saying, "Since our last... eh... mission, I've been diving into research about transforming mecha. Aside from a prototype that they refused to say anything else about, there was a recent set of satellite imagery from one orbiting Katina. These are the images of the surface ROB and I were able to retrieve-" Peppy showed a holographic image showing a zoomed image of the surface from one satellite, which showed laser fire, explosions, and fighters of unknown factions fighting some familiar characters: The shapeshifting jets from their escort mission. Another picture showed some of the jets in their jet forms, either flying from or tailing after the unknown faction. One more showed two particular members, one with bizarre weapons impossible to describe. Peppy gestured to the pictures, "Whatever they're fighting over, it may have to potential to bring the Lylat System to its knees." The old hare turned to ROB and gave him a sign. He then gestured toward a new set of pictures, focusing on more scenes from the obvious battle, "Observe these figures carefully." He gestured toward a group of them. The pictures flashed rapidly and it appeared as if the beings had become one larger being, while a bit higher in the sky, another member of the unknown faction changed its shape from a flying vehicle to a bipedal form to fire at an unseen target, then reverting to its alternate form in stop-motion. "These beings, whatever they are, they are clearly of the same level of technology, but they have different factions, so it's possible that we might be able to negotiate with them."

Fox waited until Peppy had finished, then threw a suggestion out, "We should go to Katina. If we're lucky, we can meet with them there, or we can find a lead to track them from there." There was a general consensus of agreement with his suggestion, save for Slippy and Saru, the former admitting that he wasn't a fan of the heat. Regardless, Fox declared that they were going to Katina.

~x~X~x~X~x~

"Pitstop, what can you tell us about your experience in the Great War?" The brown Lylatian fox, Sabre, asked the large, blue and yellow mech who, according to Hound, used to be a racer from Cybertron's Golden Age. Pitstop sat down, mindful of the blue Lylatian feline, with his left leg upright, the other laying flat, and his left arm resting on his knee, and spoke, "I was born in Altihex, a city that bordered Iacon. I was one of the first racers from that city. I could race with some of the best, except for Blurr. My first actual experience with the war came very suddenly, when Decepticons attacked the Altihex casino. I wasn't in the building at the time, but I saw it go up in flames. After that, I learned of Orion Pax being nominated as the next Prime, and after listening to a few of his speeches, chose to join the Autobots."

"How did you get your name?" The blue Lylatian, Crystal, asked. Pitstop stared at the ceiling in thought for a good 10 seconds before saying, "I was just named like that, same way you were named Crystal or you were named Sabre." It was at that point that Cameo, who had walked in previously, joked about it, "I'd always heard that you were called Pitstop because you kept needing tire-changes after racing Earth vehicles." Pitstop rolled his optics, "Well, maybe tire-changes weren't what my constructors had in mind when they named me." She then noticed Crystal and Sabre's confusion, "Earth is a planet you wouldn't know of." Sabre chuckled, "Your kind go to a lot of places we've never heard of, like that negative polarity universe you mentioned." Pitstop chuckled, "Oh no, I never went there. A Decepticon from that universe came here for a few days before we helped him back home, nice guy actually, you'd be surprised how much the little things affect our lives."

Starwing observed the conversation from the shadows. It was no surprise that he wasn't social, considering his reputation as a rule-breaker. Still, some things in the conversation interested him, like Earth. He had likewise never been to Earth, having spent a majority of the war in stasis, crashing in the Lylat System a few centuries ago. He also would have liked to meet this "Negative Polarity Decepticon" that Pitstop spoke of. Transformers, being mechanical most of the time, tended to live for a very long time if not forever, so a few centuries wasn't too terribly long. Though given how much he had missed, eavesdropping in conversations like these eased his troubled mind concerning what may have happened in that time. He heard footsteps behind him and turned around to see Hound walking down the hall. The green Cybertronian took note of the Triple Changer, "Stand down, Starwing, it is just me." Starwing rolled his optics, then returned to the conversation. Hound disappeared, and Starwing glanced back down the hallway, suddenly curious to what his "grand and mighty leader" was up to, even though they didn't actually elect anyone as a leader. Tiptoeing after Hound, Starwing watched the large Transformer disappear into a room and close the door behind him. What really made Starwing go over was the sound of the door locking. He pressed an audio against the door and listened. "Audio Log #72, It's been so long since we've landed here, in this system. At times, I almost forget why we were here, I find myself quite frequently enjoying the serenity of this planet, when it isn't tied up in its own conflicts... Beachcomber would probably like this system if not for that, especially that Sauria planet. Heh, Primus knows little 'bot always had a deeper connection with nature than I wish I did." There was a beep, Hound had paused his recording for a while, and Starwing sneaked away before Hound could peek out of his quarters.

In the meantime, he walked into the room that Pitstop and Cameo were in, hanging out with the two natives. Pitstop had his chest plates opened to show them the concept of a Spark, which they compared to an idea they called the soul. "Ironic, that's what Hound told me about what the humans compared the Spark to." He glanced at Cameo, "Maybe there's more in common with Earth and Corneria than we thought." Then, a surprise question came from Crystal, "Can we see _your_ Spark, Cameo?" There was a visible change of color in her face plates from silver to pink, the Cybertronian equivalent of a blush. Pitstop pushed his chest plates closed. Cameo glanced toward Pitstop, who only shrugged, "I showed them mine, it's not like yours is that different, right?" Cameo's blush only increased, but she complied and opened her chest plates. Much like Pitstop, Cameo had a Protoform under her armor, much like a body under the clothes, and her Protoform's armor also opened to reveal her Spark Chamber. Pitstop was surprised when her Spark visibly lit up the room to a greater extent than his did. When he looked inside her Spark Chamber and saw her Spark, a green orb of energy that was pulsing and emitting electrical charges, he was even more shocked, "You're a Point One Percenter?!" Cameo closed her chest plates immediately, embarrassed, while Sabre asked, "What's a Point One Percenter?" Cameo made the explanation brief, "A Point One Percenter is a rare Spark that gives its Protoform unique abilities that range from relativistic abilities to nigh-on _magical_ powers. I don't even know what mine does though. Optimus Prime was a Point One Percenter, the only one of the Thirteen who's Spark was most like their progenitor, Primus, even if they all could technically be considered Point One Percenters. His ability... I think it had something to do with using artifacts made by the rest of the Thirteen to their fullest potential, like Prima's Star Saber or Solus Prime's various tools." Pitstop patted her on the back, "Well, at least we know why Hound respects you so much."

Starwing, who had been leaning against the wall at the time, listening from just outside the conversation, was just as surprised at the news as Pitstop. Starwing knew for a fact that he wasn't a Point One Percenter, his only gimmick was Triple Changing, something easy to replicate for Cybertronians and even non-Cybertronians. At any rate though, Starwing could now see why Hound seemed so much more careful around Cameo than the others.

[Author's Notes]

→ Constructive Criticism/Feedback Encouraged!

→ Note about headcanon: Krystal has never explicitly shown (nor has it been explicitly stated) that she can sense machine minds, so I have decided that Krystal cannot sense mechanical minds at all, though cyborgs are kinda iffy right now.

→ Sabre and Krystal from _Dinosaur Planet_ are special guests in this fanfic. For those of you who are unaware, _Dinosaur Planet_ was the original version of _Star Fox: Adventures_ prior to Nintendo taking the concept and rolling with it. Sabre and Krystal were the two main protagonists, and in my headcanon, Cerinian survivors just like _Star Fox_'s own Krystal. For the sake of telling the differences between the two characters, DP!Krystal was renamed to Crystal to tell the difference, but she's still the same character.


	7. Chapter 6: Internal Injury

=Chapter 6: Internal Injury=

~x~X~x~X~x~

Soundwave shooed the Vehicons out of the medical bay once they had finished fixing up as much of her as they could. He rummaged through the medical tools, then located it toward the back of the room. Taking the cord with him, he returned to where a comatose Nightbird lay. He sat down on the medical berth next to her and plugged the cord into the back of her head, exercising caution in doing so. Once that was done, he plugged the other end into the back of his own head. He proceeded to lay down and go into stasis to perform the Cortical Psychic Patch.

Her mind was largely blank currently, the reasons for which Soundwave could attribute to a very small number of causes, ranging from a memory wipe to a shell program. There was "ground" that he was standing on, so he continued deeper into Nightbird's mind to locate any sort of information regarding her suspicious activities. As he did, the ground started to become a bit rocky, colors were starting to appear. He was stepping into a memory, this one of a planet that he soon registered as not in this star system. It was in another star system and the planet was called Kew, as he could gather from her memory. The communications monitor stepped deeper into the memory and was soon faced with a scene that, while unexpected, confirmed that something wasn't right about her. A simple way of describing it was that she wasn't herself. The original Nightbird lay flat, struggling to get up as the purple version stalked toward her, lifted her up by the neck, and proceeded to slam her into the ground. "You think that little trick of going into shut-down after taking that shot would work? You're wrong, ninja. During your time under the shell program, I've had time to rewrite your internal programming to accept _me_ as the true Nightbird! You're a virus that I'm going to delete, and I'm gonna make it painful."

Soundwave made his decision to act and detached a program that, here, took the shape of Laserbeak. This program served as a carrier program, distracting the firewall while he sneaked into the processor. The program proceeded to "hack" into her firewall, interpreted as firing lasers at the Nightbird imposter. The lasers were reflected off a force-field that materialized around her and she turned to face it, ignoring the real Nightbird entirely. She didn't recognize it as anything but an annoyance, "How dare you interrupt my fun?!" That was cut short when a forearm thin as a blade went through the firewall program, shattering it completely, and Soundwave spinning in midair rapidly to slice up the "Naught"-bird. Caught off guard and sliced to bits, the faker fell apart. Soundwave simply stared at the mess of broken code, then instructed the carrier program to begin fixing Nightbird's internal programming. As it flew higher into the massive cavern, Soundwave turned back to the mess as individual pieces glimmered, then hovered and flew into a whirlwind of pieces that reconstructed themselves into the imposter Nightbird. "You think it's that easy to just get rid of me, don't you? I'll show you who's easy to get rid of, hacker." She raised her hand and spikes of rock jutted toward Soundwave, who leaped over them, and while in the air, trained his forearms toward the imposter. His hands reconfigured into small blasters that fired sonic waves at the imposter. She was unaffected and shot at Soundwave using her own weapons, "You think a little sound is gonna affect me? You're just stupid."

Soundwave, quiet as usual, shifted to vehicle mode and boosted at the imposter. His aim was but inches from his target, but struck her in the midriff. He transformed back to robot mode and performed a whirlwind slash again like before. While still in the air, he introduced her midriff to his left knee, then kicked her with his right foot to back-flip away from her. Landing on the ground before her, he raised his arms and this time, the entire forearm opened up to reveal sonic cannons similar to the smaller versions from before. He blasted a continuous stream of sound waves and caught her in the stream, blasting her against the wall and turning it up to full force, cracking her armor apart. "Whoever you are, I will hunt you down and kill you once I get out of this!" Amazed at her ability to continue making empty threats, Soundwave walked closer to her, still blasting. When he was within reach of her, he turned off the sonic cannons and extended his tentacles toward her, grabbing onto her face and sending waves of code into the imposter. The fake Nightbird screamed and exploded, the complex data dissolving into simple binary code as the memory faded. Soundwave looked up to see the carrier program had returned, having finished reconstructing Nightbird's original internal programming. He turned to see the original Nightbird recovering and approached her. Whether or not he was aware of it, he was intimidating, and the original Nightbird, even if she was an avatar of her subconsciousness, was quite truly scared, even if Soundwave bore no true malice toward her without reason. The wounds she had accumulated during the curb-stomp fight against her imposter were fading as her internal programming settled into place.

Once she remembered Soundwave more clearly, Nightbird wasn't as scared of him. She may have seemed uncharacteristically expressive here, but that was behind the facade she put up externally as part of her training in Metallikato, not to let her emotions control her, but not to ignore them. She always had a bit of trouble with that last part, which had led her to this situation in the first place. There was a long, unspoken conversation between her and Soundwave. He had pieced everything together the second he had made optic contact with the imposter, she had figured out that he wasn't going to hurt her as opposed to how he had destroyed the imposter. She was ready to wake up and Soundwave extended a hand to her. She touched his knife-like digits and in a flash, her processor was jogged back from the depths.

Electricity violently erupted from the cord for a second as it was ripped from the back of her head by her own hand. Gasping and hyperventilating, her battle-mask retracted and Nightbird twitched and spasmed, regaining control over her body. The dream she had after being shot was tense enough that for an instant, nothing was coordinated, not even her optics. It took a few seconds, but she regained enough control that she was able to calibrate her optics to focus on the tall, blue figure staring at her from beneath a mask, "S-Soundwave?" She sat up and checked her armor. It was off-black, her default color, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She made a weak grin, then her optics widened as her grin dropped into a frown. Her hands flew to her face and she muttered, "Dear Primus, what have I done?" Soundwave placed a hand on her back, a sign that she was alright and he was there to comfort her.

Nightbird leaped away from his touch, shifting to motorcycle mode and racing out of the Med-bay. A few Vehicons were surprised as she sped by and a couple dived out of the way. They picked themselves up in time to come face to face with Soundwave, who silently suggested they go back to work while he dealt with the ninja. The Vehicons quickly returned to their duties, while Soundwave hurrying out in the direction that Nightbird had gone. The Spark would have to wait just a little longer, Nightbird had just reached the top of Soundwave's priorities list. He would shift to jet mode, but given his choice of alt-mode, and it wasn't efficient considering what little energy there was to spare.

~x~X~x~X~x~

~x~X~x~X~x~

"Geez, if it weren't for the scorches and the strange fluid puddles here and there, you'd think Peppy would be going senile." Falco commented as he, Slippy, Fox, and Krystal searched the area around the abandoned outpost. He was right about the environment, clear evidence of a fight was all around them, but the only things missing were the combatants. High above them, Fara and Saru were performing their duties as the eyes in the sky. Falco would have loved to join them, he was always one for aerial vehicles of any sort. It didn't mean he could fly any of them, his skills were largely devoted to the Arwing, but he loved the sky either way. He never actually shared why he loved heights so much, but he was content to let the rest of them think that it was his avian nature.

Falco was snapped back to reality before he could truly daydream by Slippy yelling for the group's attention. They rushed to his position and were just as surprised as Slippy at what they saw before them. It was a large pile of rocks, but only partially concealed by the rocks was a massive mechanical being. It significantly different from the red and blue one, this one being a deep shade of purple, but it was clearly "alive," if one could describe a machine like that. It was coming to, groaning and mumbling incoherently. Its free arm connected with its forehead and rubbed it, like it was dealing with a hangover. It then realized that it couldn't move and panicked, speaking in an alien language that, despite its significant difference to Lylatian languages, probably was some kind of cussing given the being's panicked attempts at freeing itself.

The mechanical being noticed the Star Fox team and froze, staring from its two red chevron-like visors. Fox's eyes turned to Krystal, who didn't move being returning his glance. He briefly wondered if this was a bad idea, then started walking up to the being. The being watched him walk closer, but his mask made it difficult to tell if he was panicked or some other emotion. Fox stopped a considerable distance, around halfway between the robot and the rest of his crew. Everyone held their breath as Fox spoke to the being, "Hello, I am Fox McCloud, I am the leader of the Star Fox team. We won't harm you, just ask a few questions. Can you understand us?" The being simply stared, a few beeps and whirs could be heard, before it answered, "Most of us come with a translator that lets us pick up new languages simply by hearing them."

Fox was relieved, "So, you wouldn't mind answering a few questions for us?" The being muttered, "I won't be going anywhere for a while." Fox analyzed the situation the being was in, then spoke up, "If you answer our questions, we'll help you out of there and bring you home, maybe throw in some repairs too." The being perked up, "That would be nice. Ask away."

"What happened here?"

"A conflict. My superior encountered an old subordinate that broke away for a splinter faction. I was working in the mines when they arrived and got out of the mine in time to get buried under rubble that was dropped on our unit."

"What were you fighting over?"

"Resources. Can you repair me now?"

After answering a few more questions, Fox contacted the others to let them know about their situation. The Great Fox, which the Vehicon admired as truly impressive by his own standards, arrived above the outpost. Beaming Landmasters down, Falco, the only one to get an Arwing, coordinated the rescue effort from above, while Saru, Miyu, Fara, and Slippy used the Landmasters' strength to pull the smaller rocks off and shoot the larger rocks into smaller ones. It took at least an hour, but the Vehicon was freed. He had apparently sustained worse damage than he thought, as his legs failed the instant he tried to move them, and his right arm was paralyzed internally. He was willing to admit that he wasn't in a very good position at the moment, and asked if they could help him to the Great Fox. There was some debating, but in the end, the group decided the best place for the Vehicon until they could return him was inside the Great Fox's cargo hold. Attaching steel cables to his shoulders and one more around his chest, three Arwings were used to lift him up, a task easier said than done. It was another hour to get him into the Great Fox, as they were forced to beam the Landmasters back up, sending Arwings to pick up the crew on the planet surface, so they could use a Landmaster's horsepower to carefully pull the Vehicon into the cargo hold, given that they couldn't fit him in the docking bay along with the Arwings and Landmasters. Once everyone had returned to the Great Fox, Peppy set it to return to orbit around the planet until they had a destination to go to. Slippy had set to working on the Vehicon and trying to fix him up however he could. Unfortunately, the toad mechanic was stumped by the Vehicon's complex internal systems and was only able to perform exterior work, patching up some of the visible wounds on the Vehicon.

"I think I have a new appreciation for technology now. By the way, which hole does this wire go into?" Slippy had the Vehicon's side opened and was trying to repair what the Vehicon had described as a device that would restart the Vehicon's natural regenerative process. The Vehicon nodded, "It's nice to know that. Many races have regarded us in a similar way, though some have different reactions. I have heard tales of a race call "Humanity" that have a large cluster of different opinions, such as regarding us as machines or appreciating us as individuals. And that wire goes into this hole." The Vehicon pointed at one particular outlet on his side, under his armor. Slippy plugged the wire into the port, then closed the armor up. The Vehicon sighed, "It'll feel good to have functional legs again, no matter how long it takes." Slippy agreed, "This cargo hold isn't exactly the safest place for you, even if we can't really keep you anywhere else at the moment." The Vehicon made a quick survey of the room, "It's still fairly roomy here. A good place to stay for a while." Slippy remembered something, "You did give Peppy the coordinates to your home-world, right?" The Vehicon shook his head, "To quote an old medic named Ratchet, 'Cybertron is so far away that your aim would have to be astronomically correct.'" As soon as he said that, the Vehicon wondered if he had misquoted the medic by accident. He didn't have much contact with Ratchet even before the war, the only time he did was he came in for a leaking Energon tank, and Ratchet told him stories while checking it out.

~x~X~x~X~x~

"This planet, the natives call it Fortuna, was supposed to be one of those planets involved toward the end of this system's war as well as the start of an invasion by some sort of parasite species. We're here because Hound thinks he detected an Energon source here." Stiletto clarified to Cameo as she stepped through the Space-bridge. They were followed by Pitstop and Starwing. Cameo immediately asked, "Why didn't Hound come with us?" The brown two-wheeler answered, "Hound said he was going to investigate another Energon source candidate." The pink femme glanced around, "Macro stayed behind?" At Starwing's confusion, Pitstop lowered his voice to tell him, "Hound was a Sentry during the War for Cybertron. I got to see him in action a few times, he can handle himself."

Starwing was a bit curious about why Hound wouldn't bring back-up on a mission like this one and asked, "How are we going to search for the Energon?" Stiletto glanced at him, "You'll take to the skies, I'll scout along the canyon walls, Pitstop and Cameo will search inside the canyon." It made sense that not everyone would come on a scouting mission, but to send most of the team to one potential source then explore another by himself piqued Starwing's suspicions. He glanced around at trees and various flora, "How much of this place are we exploring?" Stiletto began climbing up the canyon while Pitstop and Cameo shifted into their alt-modes and drove off, "Just this valley for now, it's in the area where he'd picked up on the radiation." Taking it as a hint, Starwing leaped into the air and changed into his Arwing form to cover the skies.

"Pitstop, I've been thinking lately, maybe at some point I should get a remodel. Can I ask for your opinion?" The taller blue and yellow Autobot transformed to alt-mode, followed by Cameo, and walked backwards to check behind them. He answered Cameo after a second, "I'll take a look at it, but we have a mission." Cameo sighed. She held the radar up and about, trying to locate any potential Energon sources. Unfortunately, the radar was blank, so she only continued forward, thoughts of that remodel fading.

"What did you do before the war, Stiletto?" Starwing asked through the com-link, debating on whether or not to switch to his Landmaster form to cover the ground atop the cliffs on either side of the valley. There was a pause, then Stiletto satisfied his inquiry with an unsatisfactory answer, "I don't really remember much from before the war. I woke up on Earth and after checking in with the computers of the _Arclight_, learned about the crash, it had damaged my processor and though it took some time to find him, I was able to get Triage to fix it, though the memory was lost forever." Curious and distracted from his debate, he asked a question related to it, "When you guys woke me up from stasis, was my Processor damaged?" Stilleto, still hanging from the cliff-side, replied, "No, thankfully. But none of us have the technical skill to break through the codewall hiding your memories." Starwing made a somber grunt. She'd just thrown his attempt to alleviate his boredom out the window and he was bored again. "I'm gonna go Landstalker for a bit to conserve fuel." Stiletto reminded him, "Okay, but remember that you're our only flier currently, we'll need you to go back to the air at some point" Starwing hadn't waited for an answer and was already descending.

Once close enough to the ground, Starwing changed into his Landmaster form. His wings folded in and cradled the underside of his Arwing mode while the front part began opening and folding in on itself. Two sets of caterpillar treads slid out from under his Arwing, splitting into pairs of wheels that positioned themselves in the front and back, a cannon jutted out from the backside, above the thruster, and rotated from vertical to horizontal.

He hit the ground in Landmaster mode and began driving across the terrain as Stiletto contacted him, "Any luck though?" Starwing gave her a disappointing reply, "Nothing so far, how about you?" The femme's reply was equally disappointing, "Nothing, not a drop." Starwing grumbled, shifted to robot mode, leaped off the cliff side to get air, and went into Arwing mode to continue searching. "This is boring." Stiletto countered, "I have an Energon radar to scan the entire canyon. With Cameo _and_ Pitstop on the ground, and you in the air, we should be able to find it by now. It might be that the long-range scanner was faulty?" Starwing flew around for a bit before he asked, "Do any of us know how to fix it?" Stiletto thought about it for a bit, "I could run a diagnostic. It'll have to wait until we get back though." For a brief, quiet moment, Starwing considered abandoning the mission, but the thought left when contact from below reached them, "How are you two doing?" Stiletto answered Pitstop, still climbing the cliff-side, "Things have been... difficult, but otherwise, we've found nothing." Starwing remained silent, Stiletto had said exactly what had progressed, give or take.

~x~X~x~X~x~

The sound of burning rubber echoed into the base as Macro sped into the outpost through the entrance. It was located within a tunnel, not too far underground, where their base had been constructed into a large cavern. He hit the brakes, then transformed and stood up. He stood up looked around as his armor settled into place. He had just gotten back from dropping Sabre and Crystal off. The two Lylatians still had day jobs to go to, and by extension, that meant they needed to be there, thus the base was very briefly unguarded while he had left. The proximity sensors had gone off while he was on his way back and when he had arrived, he had hoped to find Hound, but the surprising lack of their Autobot Sentry friend gave Macro a reason to manifest a Rail Laser Rifle from his body.

There was a strange sound, prompting Macro to move with caution deeper into the base, debating on the possibility that the Seekers had found them. He glanced into a hallway, then walked down it, following the faint sound of a voice, words completely lost to him given the vagueness of the voice. As he edged closer, the voice became clearer, but he couldn't recognize who it belonged to. The first thought to come to his mind involved Deadheat, who he was the former mechanic of back on Velocitron. However, the tone of voice wasn't right, there was something about hearing this mech's voice that was just _wrong_, and not in any way that he could properly put into words, even in his native tongue.

The door opened and Macro caught a glimpse of a large hulking figure in the likeness of the late Optimus Prime. The major differences being the lookalike's black repaint and red optics that unnerved Macro. The Optimus lookalike raised his arm and transformed it into a Path Blaster. Macro made a mad sprint away in the opposite direction, changing into his low-rider form and racing away as laser fire from the room pelted the hallway he was just in. He swerved through the base almost as fast as his mind raced in its attempt to comprehend what he had just seen. He skidded around a corner, reverted to his robot mode and returned fire with his Rail Laser Rifle. He fired on the lookalike and was surprised when the weapon had absolutely no effect on him. The lookalike instead continued in spite of the laser fire, and turned his Path Blaster on Macro, firing on the smaller 'bot and striking him in the shoulder. Macro compressed his Rail Laser Rifle back inside of himself and opted to try for melee combat, manifesting his Delta Sword from his arms and swinging it at the hostile duplicate. The clone held his hand up and caught the blade in one hand, surprising Macro as the mech grabbed him by his neck and lifted him up. Macro struggled to get out of the clone's grasp as he ripped Macro's Delta Blade out of his hand. He briefly let go of Macro, then grabbed his face and slammed the mech into the wall. He let go of Macro and before the Autobot could recover, the lookalike ran him through with his Delta Blade. Given how the Delta Blade functioned, the pain was excrutiating and only getting worse by the second. He managed to look up at his assailant and tried to make a single noise, to no avail. And yet, the lookalike seemed to know exactly what he wanted to say, and held his head up when he fell limp. Macro's optics were wild and unfocused for a brief moment, briefly focusing when he heard the lookalike speak, "If you must have a name, you can call me Nemesis Prime." Nemesis Prime moved closer to Macro's face, "However, Names matter naught to the dead." He grabbed the handle of the Delta Blade and shoved it further into Macro's chassis. At some point after leaving him alone, Macro briefly thought he heard their Space-bridge activate, then lost consciousness.

[Author's Notes]

→ All characters present in this story are stylized after their "TFAligned/Universe" counterparts, with some exceptions. As Starscream and none of his Seekers made an appearance or were listed as characters in "Transformers Universe" prior to its closure, they have reverted to their WFC bodies. Flamewar has likewise undergone a minor revision, appearing more as a recolor of the unused "Universe" Arcee in Flamewar's colors due to personal opinions about her own model's designs. Starwing, being an OC, instead takes a few design cues from FOC Silverbolt and WFC Scattershot, intermixed with some Arwing pieces and Landmaster pieces in corresponding locations, with his helmet taking a few cues instead from "Transformers Universe" Hotwire. Nemesis Prime as he was introduced in this chapter is your standard "Nemesis" repaint of "Transformers Universe" Optimus Prime.

→My personal opinion on Repaint/Recolor/Retool/Remodel OCs goes like this: "If repaints/retools happen in canon, then an OC could be a reasonable repaint/retool as long as their personality is sufficiently different and their abilities are practical and/or balanced." Transformers is perhaps one big franchise featuring repaints and retools (See the TFWiki's Bumblebee (Movie)/Toys page for an idea of just how many repaints/retools they've made).


	8. Chapter 7: Morning of Mourning

=Chapter 7: Morning of Mourning=

~x~X~x~X~x~

Starwing was getting the impression something was wrong, but he couldn't piece it together. He wasn't telepathic, he wasn't precognitive, he couldn't even wrap his head around the inner workings of a Tachyon transmitter, but he just had this gut feeling that they'd been off-world from their base a bit too long. He wanted to bring this up, but right as he opened his com-link to voice his suspicions, Pitstop interrupted them, "Cameo and I've just made a discovery. We've found the source of that Energon Hound had detected, and they're geodes. The mineral composition of the shells explains why we couldn't pinpoint their location initially." Stiletto offered a suggestion, "Maybe most of the Energon in this system's contained in geodes of similar composition. It would explain why we can't seem to find many deposits despite the readings. I could work on the energy scanner once we get back. Speaking of which, we might have to leave anyway, so set up a waypoint at your discovery and we'll return later with the equipment to mine it."

Having taken the bus to get to the edge of the city, then walking to a couple of abandoned buildings, Sabre was anxious to see their Autobot friends again, while Crystal took her time getting to the smaller "shack" right next to the warehouse, having spent most of her time enjoying the weather. There was a forecast for rain, and given the fact that the clouds were just now starting to move in, the forecast was starting to look correct. He waited until Crystal was in the shack with him, then closed the door. Crystal searched for it briefly, then found the one panel on the cement walls and pulled it down to reveal a number pad. She typed the code in, then stepped back as a portion of the floor opened up as a platform rose to the top. She glanced at him, clearly a bit bothered by this. He stepped onto the elevator with her and as they descended, asked her, "Do you think everything is okay there?" Crystal shook her head, "Dunno. Macro never came to pick us up today. I do hope they're alright." Crystal recalled that she had intended to take the day off and spend it at home watching her favorite TV shows, or playing video games, and had even called in from work today. She was prepared to invite Sabre over when he had called her about being unable to reach the Autobots.

They reached the bottom of the elevator shaft to a long subway that was decently lit up. Sabre pressed a button, calling for the subway train. This particular one was constructed years ago by some Cornerian unit, as a back-up escape route should their outpost ever be compromised. Currently, they were about to use it to go to the Autobot base. The subway train rolled up quietly, then stopped, and opened the doors for them. Crystal gave Sabre another concerned glance, then stepped inside the train. Sabre followed, taking a seat closer to the front. Crystal stared at the ceiling in thought, then sat down across from Sabre. It would be at least an hour or two, they hadn't exactly been frequent users of this route.

Five minutes of silence later, Crystal finally asked Sabre, "Did ya bring something to do?" Sabre held up his cell-phone, "I had tried messaging them, still no replies. I've got videos, books, other stuff. Why, didn't you bring yours?" Crystal blushed and broke eye contact, "I forgot to charge mine." Sabre looked at her with an unchanging expression, "How's that a big deal? Everyone's forgotten at some point." She sighed and leaned back on the bench. It was tempting to lay down and sleep. She looked at Sabre and asked, "Maybe they're doing extensive maintenance? Someone, maybe Pitstop, mentioned it at some point." Sabre stared at the ceiling, cell-phone cradled in his hands after he had hit 'send' on a message, "Maybe, but you'd think they would've told us." He paused for a moment, "Though Pitstop could've been referring to self-maintenance." Crystal rolled her eyes, "It's not like they're gonna disappear if you don't talk to them for five minutes." He put his cell-phone in his pocket and laid down on the bench, thankful for the fact that they were comfortable. He sighed, then answered Crystal's statement, "Is it a crime to be curious?" Crystal chuckled and shook her head, following Sabre's idea, though laying in the opposite direction as him. "Nah, I never said that, just that you ask them some pretty odd questions at times." Sabre, as straight-faced as ever, looked up and said, without missing a beat, "Like you don't?"

"Alright, I sent Macro a message. We should get our Space-bridge here in a bit." Cameo let the rest of the team know. There was a long period of silence as the group, having recently mostly reunited the team, in anticipation for their portal. Pitstop made an annoyed noise, then tried to contact the Autobot base. The amount of interference was ridiculous, but the signal went through. "This is Pitstop, we need a Space-bridge." There was silence on the other line, before the Space-bridge opened without even a single word of acknowledgement of his request. He looked to the skies as Starwing in Arwing mode returned, transforming and landing a few yards away and catching up with the group. For a long second, they just stood at the portal, before walking into it.

When they came out of the Space-bridge, the sight that greeted them was startling enough that Cameo froze as soon as she saw it, then pushed forward when Stiletto and the others ran into her. The Space-bridge closed behind them and they looked around at the mess before them. Instantly, they drew their weapons and began carefully inspecting every inch of the base. As far as they knew, their base was secure and shouldn't have this kind of damage done to it.

While walking back into the Bridge control room, Cameo stopped once again, thinking about checking the console to see how the Space-bridge activated even if the base was abandoned. She opened the computer screen, relieved to find it mostly undamaged, and checked some of the programming for the Bridge system. She discovered a recently opened program. The title was written in Cybertronix, which was her first language next to the Linguistic Augmenter upgrade for her audio receptors and voice box. "Emergency_Bridge_Summon?" She wondered aloud, "Sounds like an 'Emergency Use Only' program to bridge us back if our base was in trouble. And by the looks of it, there was trouble." She looked around, audio sensors suddenly picking up on the faint rumble of wheels on rails. At first, she dismissed it and continued looking through the files for something, coming across a collection of recordings. The cameras in their bases were designed to record one hour at a time, then save it onto the computer's hard drive. She came across another puzzling file. This one had no name, and when she opened it, there was a single document about Cybertronian legends. Curious as to what purpose that had, she opened it and began reading it, making a copy to read later. When she opened it, the document opened on a bookmarked chapter on an urban legend titled 'Scourge.'

Any further thoughts of the curiosity were interrupted by the sound of screeching, something was stopping close by. She closed the file manager and began looking around. There was a thud and behind the computer, two doors slid open. On impulse, Cameo jabbed her arm out and the armor on her forearm shifted around, pieces erupted from underneath, and formed a Thermal Laser Pistol pointed at the elevator. Two familiar Lylatians cowered from assumed death. Cameo recognized them and concealed her weapon. Sabre was the first to ask, "What's going on?" Cameo filled them in on what had happened as far as they knew. "Does this mean we need to move?" Crystal inquired after the explanation. Cameo was about to open her mouth to speak when there was a yell from within the base. Thinking quickly, Cameo told the two Lylatians to stay put, then ran to where the others had called.

A horrific sight lay in one of the hallways, not far from the Bridge control. Macro was on his side, a weapon that Cameo recognized as his Delta Sword stuck through his midriff. Next to him, Pitstop had knelt next to him and was checking for any signs of life. Starwing, uncharacteristically, was sitting by the wall, staring at the two mechs with coolant leaking from his tear ducts. He was clearly holding back, in a vain attempt to try and keep himself from breaking down into a sobbing, panicked mess. Stiletto stood tall, and characteristically for her, had one hand on Starwing's shoulder as a comforting gesture. Cameo inhaled deeply to try and keep calm. Stiletto took a moment to make sure Starwing would be alright mentally, then walked out of the hallway with the excuse that she was going to alert Hound. Seeing her closest allies, whom she had fought beside and dared to stare Death in the eye with, broken and hopeless, tore into her just as much as Macro's current condition had. Tiny footsteps announced the arrival of Sabre and Crystal. Upon seeing Macro, then the reactions of the other Autobots, Sabre gasped and looked away. Crystal, wrapped her arms around him and held him closer to her, shushing him gently.

~x~X~x~X~x~

The Vehicon glanced up at the ceiling and sighed. The nanites in his body were taking their sweet time fixing his legs, though given that it was a major injury, that would take a while naturally. And besides, he'd still need to get checked up by the doctors when he returned, given that the nanites only focused on functionality. That said, they couldn't restore entire organs, like the T-cog he donated. At the sound of a door sliding open, he looked down to see the blue vixen once again. "Is there a reason you keep visiting me?" Krystal closed the door behind her, "A few, really." The Vehicon attempted to readjust himself to accompany the small life-form, "May I ask for them? It reminds me too much of one of my allies when you just stand there and watch." Krystal blushed from embarrassment, "I don't mean to. It's... related to my childhood." The Vehicon looked at her sideways, "Technologically deficient society?" Krystal thought about it, "Kind of... I know we had at least one giant machine. Something about your kind just..." When she trailed off, the Vehicon finished her sentence, "Seems familiar? It's possible. Since the Great War, our entire race has scattered to the stars, and while some of us came home, there are some who feel like they have no place in Cybertron anymore. I was raised in the middle of the war, I never had much experience in any other culture except a war-driven one."

"...Maybe you're right. However, that's only one of the reasons that I have for visiting you." The Vehicon shifted again, "Other reasons?" Krystal tried to make the explanation brief, "I am a telepath. I sense minds. I can hear minds and speak through my own. But, for some reason, I can't sense your race's minds." The Vehicon chuckled, "Well, I promise you I'm not a mindless drone." Krystal's reaction was to give him a look serious enough that he stopped laughing, "I don't doubt that you're mindless. The few times I've encountered your kind recently, they've demonstrated it over and over. But I want to know why you're invisible to me." The Vehicon shrugged, "If I knew, I'd tell ya. I know we have telepaths in our species. One in particular, Soundwave, comes to mind yet again. Perhaps it has something to do with that?"

A sudden jolt shook the Vehicon so much that Krystal panicked and wondered if he was expiring. The spasms stopped and the Vehicon looked at his legs. His left foot twitched and he grinned, or would have if he had a mouth, "My legs are working again!" Krystal exhaled, "How exactly does a robot regenerate like that?" The Vehicon looked up briefly, in thought, then told her, "Nanites. They repair the most basic damages or the most small ones. I won't be able to repair the armor on my legs, but the circuits are fully functional at this point. I'll need to visit the medic once I get home." Something rumbled the entire ship and immediately, and the Vehicon got to his feet, learning very quickly that the room lacked adequate space for him to stand.

Krystal dashed out. The ship rumbled again and she was thrown against the wall. "Dammit," she muttered as she continued down the hall. She arrived on the Bridge and tried to get answers from ROB and Peppy, "What's going on?" ROB gave the report, "Radar detects large number of robots, dissimilar to the resident Mechanoid." Peppy turned to Krystal, "You need to get out there! The others are already preparing for launch!" Nodding in response, she dashed for the elevator and hopped in.

The Vehicon tried to contact the Bridge, "Is there a way you can get me out there?" Peppy was curious, "What are you going to do?" The Vehicon replied, "I'm joining this fight. It's what I was born for." Peppy grumbled, "There's a lever that opens the cargo hold doors. Be sure to air out the place beforehand or you'll get sucked out into space. The switch for air control is located above the lever." The Vehicon did as told and opened the cargo hold after removing the air from the cargo hold. He spotted an entire armada of insect-like Cybertronians, Insecticons. He climbed out of the cargo hold as a force-field went up to contain the cargo. He shifted his arm into a blaster in preparation of the fight. He magnetized to the Great Fox's exterior. One of the Insecticons flew toward him and transformed into Robot mode, a form that was just as monstrous as their beetle-like Insect modes. It flew toward him as he grabbed it and tossed it away. More Insecticons landed on the hull and some formed blasters to fire at him. While he was busy distracting some, the Star Fox team was dealing with the ones remaining in the sky. Unfortunately, the battle was in favor of the Insecticons and their sheer brute force, overwhelming numbers, and completely unpredictable method of fighting.

Even when using full force against them, the Star Fox team, with the addition of the Vehicon, was fighting a losing battle. As he shot down ships, Falco intercepted a communication from an unknown source, "Hack into their computer, they have the Decepticons' location!" Falco shared this information with the others, the Vehicon included. The Vehicon wasn't too pleased, "We've gotta stop them somehow!" Peppy reached through their com-link, "I'll send an SOS and deploy the Great Fox's weaponry!" The Vehicon jabbed his fist into one Insecticon's chest and yanked his Laser Core out, then used the corpse to block incoming fire from behind the Insecticon. At the ping of lasers hitting him from the other side, he turned and tossed the corpse in that direction, knocking a couple off. Saru stated the obvious, "There's too many! Our weapons don't do shit against them!" Fox swerved to avoid a couple Insecticons, "I hate when the enemy thinks about that."

~x~X~x~X~x~

Soundwave eventually found Nightbird, standing alone on the exterior of their ship. Nightbird only stared at the stars, unmoving, unspeaking. Soundwave approached her carefully, though his presence wasn't unknown to Nightbird. She turned to face him. He should have expected it, but it came as a surprise that her eyes betrayed her weakness. Soundwave walked toward her and slipped his hand into hers as a sign to let her know that he was there for her. Nightbird stared into his optics as he pulled her into an embrace. It was meant to be comforting, but Nightbird just didn't react beyond a quiet incoherent noise. Soundwave sensed this and cradling her to his chest as he returned to the hallways inside the ship, letting her listen to his Spark beat while doing so.

He set her down on the berth of her quarters, then sat down next to her. Neither one said a word at first, but Nightbird's battle-mask retracted. Her guard was down and for the first time that he had ever heard _her_ voice, not that of the shell program's voice, she spoke, "I was weak..." Her voice was a lower pitch from her shell program's high-pitched, squealing voice. Soundwave tried to offer comfort by resting his hand on her shoulder. She started to curl up and muttered, "I let my guard down and paid the price."

A ping in his com-link attracted his attention and he excused himself. He answered the call to an Eradicon. The Eradicon played a video from a patrolling Jet Vehicon showing a huge firefight, after the Vehicon reported picking up a distress signal. That wasn't surprising, as Soundwave had seen some of the natives fighting on that level. The surprise came in the form of recognition of the shapes of Insecticons fighting through a few of the native ships, along with a lone driller Vehicon working with the natives in an attempt to fight back against the Insecticon Swarm. The video ended and Soundave gave the Eradicon orders. The Eradicon proceeded to arrange a team of Jet Vehicons to follow him into the fray, leaving through a Space-bridge.

~x~X~x~X~x~

A shower of red lasers pelted the Insecticons from beyond. The Driller Vehicon, along with the Insecticons he fought, turned to the front of the Great Fox, where an army of purple hover vehicles had arrived, punching through the Insecticon swarm like bug-killer against ants. They were led by a silver jet of indeterminate model, who chased the Insecticons that it hadn't destroyed away. The silver jet turned and flew toward the Great Fox, ramming one of the Insecticons without stopping. The members of Star Fox were largely surprised, but the reaction of the Vehicon brought a mixture of comfort and shock. The Vehicon was surprised when he saw the jet, "You're here!" The jet changed shape into a tall, silver and black armored being and landed on the hull of the Great Fox. the Eradicon manifested a laser cannon and shot through a few of the Insecticons, clearing many of them off the hull.

Once enough had been cleared away, the Eradicon approached the Vehicon and greeted him, "I am here, driller. Once we take care of this infestation, you're coming home." The Vehicon intercepted a communication with the being he had come to know as Falco, "Could use some stellar-grade pesticide over here!" The Eradicon responded by changing his other arm into a blaster and firing at the Insecticons tailing one of the native starships. A small squad of Vehicons tailed the Insecticons with the squad leader telling the Eradicon, "We'll take it from here." The Eradicon let the Vehicons do so and turned toward the rest of the Swarm. The miner Vehicon guarded his back as he unleashed a hailstorm of lasers . One of the Jet Vehicons ejected a capsule that flew toward Galvatron and the miner Vehicon. The capsule transformed into an Assail Laser Rifle, that the Vehicon grabbed and proceeded to use against another wave.

Even though they were gaining ground, the Insecticons weren't showing signs of slowing down. In fact, Space-bridge portals had appeared to bring more Insecticons into the fight. Star Fox, the Vehicons, even the Eradicon couldn't fight forever, and the fight with the Insecticons was starting to take its toll. Slippy, Fox, Katt, and Fay already had to return to the Great Fox for repairs, and the Vehicons, no matter how proficient they had become, had been reduced to half their original numbers already. Even the Eradicon was starting to feel taxed from the fight. It was very slow, but his laser cannons were starting to fire weaker lasers, a sign of dwindling Energon. Nonetheless, they kept fighting, for a number of reasons, such as the future of the Lylat System.

~x~X~x~X~x~

The brilliant light tunnel of the Space-bridge barely registered on her optics as she simply sat and stared. A voice brought Arcee back to reality, "Are you certain the coordinates are correct, captain?" She glanced at the Autotrooper, "Yes, I'm fully certain." The Autotrooper turned and walked away as an ambulance drove onto the bridge and transformed into Ratchet. The medic stood and stared out the canopy, "These coordinates are near the last detected location of Hound." Arcee responded with a half-hearted chuckled, "I can't wait to see him again."

There was a long silence, then Arcee asked Ratchet, "Do you suppose that I'm really cut out for leader, Ratchet?" Ratchet scoffed, "Optimus asked us the same question many, many times after the Exodus. Considering the state of things currently, I would nominate you for leader in a Spark-beat." Arcee sighed, "Maybe..." Ratchet couldn't help but grin at the statement. Briefly, he wondered just how close Arcee and Optimus were, but those thoughts, along with other thoughts, were interrupted by a crash and an irritated growling. Arcee rolled her optics, predicting what was about to be said as from somewhere behind them, someone yelled, "My finish! I just buffed that! Watch where you're walking with that thing! ...Stupid Autotrooper." A red sports-car Transformer stomped up behind Ratchet, attracting the medic's attention. Knock Out gestured to a small grey scratch on his chest, "Just look at what they did to my paint-job!"

Ratchet rolled his optics, "Is it bleeding?" Knock Out growled briefly, then sighed, "No..." The medic gestured to the med-bay, "Fix your own finish." Knock Out left, grumbling. The former Decepticon had been a bit stubborn about his paint-job lately, the reasons for which Ratchet could only think of. He heard metal clinking and turned to see Arcee get out of the captain's chair. She moved closer to the canopy and crossed her arms, optic-lids closed. She asked Ratchet, "Do you think we'll ever fit in on Cybertron?" Ratchet opened his mouth to speak, then rubbed his chin in thought. That question had crossed his mind a few times, but he never dared to answer it, though he never knew why. He turned back to her and answered her question, "To be perfectly honest, I fear that we never will. Cybertron's become peaceful and stable and I fear some of us... actually most of us would have some problems coping with it, especially those born either right before or during the war. An old human phrase Rafael once told me would describe our situation fairly accurately, 'You can take a tiger out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the tiger.'" Arcee gave a single chuckle, "You're sure that's the right quote?" Ratchet thought for a while, "I think I means that a soldier can come home from the war, but it never truly leaves him. Cybertron's a safe-haven for the 'bots that fled, there'll be no place for war machines like us among them."

Knock Out arrived on the bridge, having finished fixing his finish again, "Are we reaching the coordinates?" When neither gave him an answer, he dared ask, "Did I interrupt something?" Ratchet turned to face him, "No, but since you're here, I'll ask you the same question. Do you think we'll ever fit into Cybertronian society?" Knock Out didn't waste a moment in answering, "I like to think so. It's possible to recover from the war. After all, some of us can find a place to be." Arcee snickered, "And what would you be?" Knock Out scoffed and answered, "If I couldn't get my job back as a medic, I'd become a tattoo artist! The best one in the industry!" Arcee stopped laughing and rolled her optics. An Autotrooper working on one of the monitors called out, "We're approaching coordinates!" A dark spot in the center of the light ahead of them appeared, normal space. They arrived through the portal in time to see something that they weren't expecting, or hoping to see.

~x~X~x~X~x~

As Miyu flew back to the Great Fox for repairs, the Decepticons, having only recently finished clearing off enough Insecticons to get her inside, stopped and stared in awe briefly as the large vessel of blatant Cybertronian origin loomed overhead. After a few long seconds, Autotroopers manning Ion Displacers and Nucleon Shock Cannons appeared along the sides of the ship. They opened fire as the Insecticon Swarm divided off to attack multiple targets. The Eradicon was forced to continue attacking, despite the warning pop-ups about his steadily worsening physical condition.

The Vehicon guarding his back contacted the Autobot ship, having figured out which faction it belonged to after seeing the Autotroopers, "Autobot vessel, if you can hear me, we would sincerely appreciate back-up!" The voice of a femme responded, "Roger that, this is Arcee, temporary commander of the Autobots. I'm sending back-up as we speak." Falco flew around the back of the ship, chasing a single Insecticon. As he did, he witnessed a hatch open and from it deployed a few hundred Autotroopers armed with either Ion Displacers or Nucleon Shock Cannons, similar to the ones mounted on the turrets. They had jet-packs that activated as soon as they stepped out into space. Lasers and dense balls of Energon plasma pushed their way through the Insecticon Swarm, blasting them to oblivion. Katt's ship flew out of the Great Fox, having been repaired by Slippy, who was working on Fox's now, and joined the fight. Eventually, more Space-bridges opened to bring more Insecticons, but some of the Autotroopers picked up the strategy quickly and fired on the Space-bridges, overloading them with energy and causing them to snap, creating violent bursts of energy that obliterated any Insecticons arriving that hadn't been destroyed by the Autotroopers or Vehicons.

Galvatron slew the last Insecticon on the Great Fox and looked back to the fight in the sky as an Autotrooper clinging to Saru's Arwing aided the Lylatian native in taking down one of the last few Insecticons. As the remnants of the Insecticon Swarm were exterminated, there were resounding echoes of cheers throughout the general com-link. Galvatron turned to the Vehicon miner that he had gone to such great lengths to save, "You're coming home soldier." The Vehicon had sustained a few injuries, mainly a damaged visor, "Thank you sir." Their celebration was cut short when an explosion rocked both of them hard enough to fling them off the Great Fox's hull. The Eradicon immediately shifted to Alt-mode. He realized the Vehicon, the same one he was attempting to save, had taken the brunt of the blast, having his legs and right arm. He was bleeding profusely and the Eradicon, after stabilizing himself, returned to Robot mode and floated toward the Vehicon. He grabbed the Vehicon and checked his pulse. Despite all odds, the Vehicon's Spark was still beating, albeit a weak and erratic beat. The Vehicon groaned, Energon sparking from his The large, silver mech held the Vehicon's hand, "The fires of the Pit will consume me a thousand times over before I let anyone else die, including you." The Vehicon's grip was shaky, "If that were... the case... I would... face it with you..." The Vehicon's visor went out and the Eradicon scanned his Spark again, fearing the worst. To his relief, the Spark had only gone into stasis, still present, but now inert.

At the sound of a radar ping, he turned to see a lone Insecticon flying at him. The Insecticon fired more missiles at him. Holding the Vehicon, he activated his thrusters for a brief moment, propelling him out of harm's way. He flew toward the closest ship, the Autobot dreadnought, relying only on periodic jets as he tried to get the Vehicon to safety. The Insecticon slammed into him from behind. Sharp claws punctured his armor, but missed his important machinery and circuitry. Hitting the side of the ship, the Vehicon slipped from his grip and as a couple Autotroopers rushed to grab the Vehicon, the Insecticon unsheathed its claws from the Eradicon's back. Bleeding Energon, the Eradicon turned, as painful as it was, to face the Insecticon as it shapeshifted into a more humanoid form. The Insecticon hissed at him and flew. Galvatron parried with the Insecticon briefly, before grabbing his face and slamming it into the hull. "I have no time for you, whoever you are! Now go back to your hive already!"

Galvatron anticlimactically slammed Waspinator's head into the side again, knocking the Insecticon's brain module loose and leaving him unconscious. He tossed the Insecticon away, only for two Autotroopers to catch him. "We'll bring him in for questioning. We've also got your Vehicon friend." He only stared ahead, optics flickering from the lack of Energon. Arcee contacted him through the com-link, "Well, Decepticons. Didn't expect to run into you again."

"Hmph, I could say the same for you, Arcee."

"We can provide shelter and resources for you and your armada, but only until you have recovered."

"That will suffice. Thank you, Arcee."

"...You're welcome."

~x~X~x~X~x~

A couple of cat Lylatians were chatting and walking down the street, living normal lives. As they were crossing a street, a black and red motorcycle practically flew by, stopping only when one of the two yelled at the rider. Apparently, having expected the rider to simply ignore them and continue, the two were surprised when the motorcycle pulled a 180, then slowed to a cruise. They could see the flame patterns on the front and sides now that it had stopped. The rider, clearly female, was obscured from identification by the suit and helmet she wore, except for the fact that she was another cat Lylatian from the tail. The female glared at them and got off her bike. "I drive where I want. If you have a problem, then tell me." The two Lylatians, only one of whom was taller than both the others, traded glances, then the taller one turned to her, "Someone could get hurt with driving like that." The female waved him off and started to get back on her motorcycle, "Not my problem. As it is, I've wasted precious time dealing with your kind." The motorcycle started back up and the taller male walked up to her and casually grabbed one of the handlebars to keep her from speeding off, "My buddy's a driving instructor, he could help you refine those skills." The rider let go of the handlebars, "Since when is my driving your business, fleabag?" The insult flew over his head as he answered her, "Since you nearly ran us over."

His grip on the handlebar tightened and she immediately spoke, "Remove your filthy appendages from me at once!" The Lylatian was utterly confused, he didn't recall touching her in any way. "Are you alright miss?" The other Lylatian called to the first one, "Hey, I just realized what time it is. I need to be somewhere, think we could meet up later?" The taller one turned and nodded, "Yeah. Bar?" The shorter one nodded in reply, "Yeah, see y' at 9." once the shorter one left, the taller one turned back to the rider as she fidgeted, arms clenching her shoulders, "I won't wait forever, release my handlebar immediately!" The Lylatian glanced at the handlebar, then sneered, "No, not yet-" The rider backhanded him, making him recoil. She was about to speed off when he confronted her again, "You wanna fight? Lets go!"

The rider sighed, "These damn life-forms..." The male Lylatian took a swing at her, only for his fist to go right through the rider as she flickered, then disappeared. "What the hell?" He exclaimed as he turned back to the motorcycle. There was a brief sound of clinking and whirring, before the motorcycle seemed to explode into a whirlwind of mechanical pieces. The motorcycle calmed down after it's form had completely changed. Other Lylatians that were walking by when they saw it panicked and took off in every direction except toward the newly formed mechanical being. The Lylatian that had been harassing her panicked and tried to run, only for the being to pounce over him and corner him. The being's purple eyes glared at him as it asked in the same voice as the rider, "You still wanna fight?" The Lylatian scooted back and screamed, "Fuck this!" He got up and started running as fast as he physically could. The being only responded by manifesting a weapon resembling a bow from her arm, then pointing the weapon at the fleeing would-be combatant. "No-one runs from me and lives." She fired an arrow that, but the being's standards, was normal size, but to the Lylatian, it was big enough that it sliced right through his midriff and buried the arrowhead in the cement.

The being huffed and started to walk away, shifting into her motorcycle disguise with the rider hologram reappearing. As she drove away, she thought about the reason she was here. She, much like many of the Cybertronians now here, was here for Optimus Prime. However, that wasn't her primary goal the way it was with all the others. Her primary goal was a certain femme, one who's model she shared bolt for bolt. The femme, Arcee, the same one that Airachnid once had an obsession with. However, while Airachnid may have been content merely to torture the blue Autobot femme, Flamewar had no intentions of letting the femme stay alive. If they ever met, Flamewar had plans to make sure the femme went quickly and messily. However, before that, the issue of hiding from the natives took priority, given that she had witnessed the true extent of their weaponry and had no desire to be on the business end of any of those guns.

[Author's Notes]

→ See previous A/N's for an explanation behind Flamewar's appearance.

→ I'd actually finished rewriting this chapter a while ago, but for some reason those edits were lost, so I had to try and reconstruct them from scratch.


	9. Chapter 8: Contacts & Contracts

=Chapter 8: Contacts &amp; Contracts=

~x~X~x~X~x~

The Decepticons' current base had grown exceptionally quiet. Most of the aerial Vehicons had left, and even though that was less than a fifth of the ship's population, everything else had just quieted down a bit. The impact of it hit Soundwave once again. Every now and then, there was a conversation or two that he could hear, but most of the time, when they weren't on a mission, most of the Vehicons who weren't performing some sort of repairs or maintenance were in their quarters, usually in stasis. On this derelict vessel, stasis wasn't that bad of an idea either, as Soundwave entertained the idea once again. He disregarded the idea with the mental white-noise he was sensing from Nightbird, who was sleeping on the berth that he sat on. He had taken to watching Nightbird to periodically check her mental stability and to ensure that no other hackers attempted to get inside her head.

He turned toward the sleeping femme once again. Her optic-lids were shut, and there was no glow from her optics. She was still asleep, and her Spark-beat was still stable. Soundwave scanned once again, and received the same signal that he had received the past three times he had scanned her mind: white noise. She was asleep, but she wasn't dreaming. That was one thing Soundwave had always wondered about. Why did they have dreams? What purpose did they serve? Were dreams just memories, or abstract thoughts that only the subconscious perceived? Before the Great War, before his employment as a communications monitor and spy, Soundwave studied mentality. He had a vague idea of what he would use that knowledge for, perhaps some kind of therapy, but the main reason he studied was because of his "telepathy." That word wasn't completely true, he couldn't communicate mentally, though everyone called him a telepath because he could hear the thoughts of any Cybertronian he chose. He never truly figured out how to "turn it off," only to suppress the effects of not focusing on any one mind. He would hear every thought from everyone around him, sometimes even everyone around them, but he had learned to simply filter it as background noise in his mind.

Nightbird twitched a bit and Soundwave checked on her. It wasn't anything of note, just a faulty wire, something the Vehicons most likely missed during their routinely check-up. Or if they had seen it, they probably forgot about it when Soundwave had them remove that Cerebro-shell. Soundwave was tempted to get up and check on the others, including their resident Protoform. Soundwave glanced once more at Nightbird, then realized just how tired he actually was, having spent so much time awake and in a room that he had become so familiar with that he yearned for something new to appear in there. He laid down on the berth, back-to-back with Nightbird, then closed his optics, never even bothering to take his visor off.

Nightbird briefly woke up to the feeling of something warm pressed against her back. Her yellow optics scanned the room, before landing on the now sleeping form of Soundwave. She couldn't help grinning. She wondered if he thought she needed someone to simply be with her, and curled back up, rubbing against Soundwave a bit as she got comfortable again.

~x~X~x~X~x~

The Eradicon's pedes touched the floor of the Autobot's dreadnought, the Ark III, and he took a long moment to survey the environment while his remaining Vehicons boarded. There were a few Autotroopers armed with Path Blasters and Subsonic Repeaters, clearly expecting him to make a move of some sort. The hatch behind them closed and the Eradicon took a single step, then collapsed. The Vehicons around him immediately rushed to his sides and helped him up. They tried to lift him up, and started moving him to the infirmary. Three Autotroopers went with them, partly to give them directions to the infirmary, the other part to make sure the Decepticons didn't try anything.

He eventually got to the infirmary, where Ratchet arrived. He was not too happy about the new patient, but agreed to fix the Eradicon up nonetheless. The gaping hole in his back from the Insecticon's attack wasn't bleeding as much as before, but was still wide open. Ratchet frowned upon examining the hole. The fact that he wasn't healing yet was a clear sign that he was too low on Energon. Somehow, through sheer willpower, the Eradicon had stayed awake, without falling into stasis. Ratchet had to admit that he was impressed with the Decepticon, but he advised the Eradicon that stasis was an ideal option at the moment. The Eradicon was fairly suspicious and tried to persuade the medic that he didn't need to be in stasis, but when Ratchet continued insisting, the Cybertronian realized that he wasn't going anywhere with this and complied.

~x~X~x~X~x~

"...and I am proud to have served beside him. If he can hear me, I wish him a safe trip to the Allspark." Cameo was uncharacteristically somber as Starwing turned and leaned over the large metal case, which held Macro's remains, and whispered, "We all will miss you. May your trip to the Allspark be safe and easy." As Starwing stepped away from the coffin, Hound personally took the container out of the room. No doubt he was going to take care of Macro's final resting place on his own. Starwing never quite knew why, but he had seen it every now and then, hints of Hound's care for the rest of the team. It took Starwing a moment for it to register, but he then realized just how little about Macro he actually knew, as it was obvious that his allies had been impacted by his death far more than he was.

Hound finally reached the room he was going for. He set the coffin upright on the floor. Hound sighed, pressing his helm to the coffin, "And now you'll never get to see Cybertron..." He sniffled, remembering that time when they were leaving Velocitron, and Macro had tagged along to see Cybertron at some point. He and Cameo instead ended up on Earth, alongside the rest of the crew of the _Arclight_. Hound sighed, optics closed, and muttered, "You were like a brother to me." He then left without saying another word, all hope shattered. He soon met with Starwing, who was wandering the base. Starwing took the opportunity to ask about them. Hound simply replied that he had known her far longer than the others and nothing else.

Stiletto, elsewhere in the base, had an attack of curiosity. She thought about the possibility that the attack had been captured on camera. Hound had insisted that every room in the base had a camera in it somewhere. She returned to the computer in the main room and began opening files, seeking out any video files that were made. A few keyboard swipes later, she found the recordings of the last couple days. The cameras were programmed with a 23 hours and 55 minutes surveillance, going off for 5 minutes to make the recording. She clicked into the most recent record for the camera in the hallway where Macro's body was found. Unaware that she was, her optic-ridges started angling into an angered expression, something that occurred when she concentrated.

For the longest time, there was a lot of inactivity, until she saw Macro go into the hallway. She slowed it down for a while, listening carefully. Then, she saw what looked like a black Optimus Prime waiting by the hallway. Macro ran into him and Stiletto strained her audios to listen for dialogue. Having no such luck, she resumed watching as Macro fought the lookalike, manifesting his Delta Sword to fight. Then, Stiletto's keen optics picked up the lookalike's cannon as he shot Macro, grabbed him, then ripped his Delta Sword out of his hand. There was a moment of stillness, then Macro was impaled and stuck to the wall as the lookalike Prime stabbed him with the weapon. Stiletto's optics widened and her mouth fell open. She pieced the mystery together quickly, and slammed her fists onto the table, swearing in Cybertronix.

~x~X~x~X~x~

"Please, captain. We had agreed to bring the Vehicon back home, at least allow us to accompany you there. We know this star system and can help you navigate easier." Fox tried to persuade the captain of the Ark III, Arcee. Arcee, who spoke with him through a video hologram, put a hand against her face, "Oh frag it all... You can tag along if you want. But our navigation system works just fine. Just give us the coordinates already." Fox grinned, "Thank you captain. We won't let you down." The feed cut out and Arcee turned to one of the Autotroopers, "Let me know when you have the coordinates." The Autotrooper raised his hand and gave her a thumbs-up. Footsteps behind her prompted her to turn around to come face-to-face with Knock Out, "How's our patient?" Knock Out seemed to have trouble getting words out, "Well... He's recovering... just fine. But... um..." Arcee raised an optic-ridge, "Is there something else?" Knock Out stared briefly, then said, "I think it would be easier to show you."

Following the Ex-Decepticon Medic into the infirmary, Arcee came across Ratchet giving the Eradicon a joint inspection. Ratchet looked up from the Eradicon's elbow joint, "Everything is in working order. I would say take some time off and get as much rest as you can..." The Eradicon glanced at the blue femme in the doorway of the infirmary, anticipating something along the lines of an interrogation, "Thank you, doctor."

"I guess the old hare was right after all." Falco nonchalantly stated in an attempt to start a conversation. Slippy, in a moment of curiosity, asked, "About what?" Falco answered, "About this whole thing. Multiple sides in the conflict, giant transforming robots, them having something to do with that thing we found and its disappearance. I'm starting to agree that it ain't a coincidence that they're all only appearing now, after finding that being disappeared." Katt's voice joined into the conversation, "So, what are ya saying Falco?" Falco replied to her inquiry, "I'm saying, I think they were looking for it when we found it. They've likely been looking for it since way before those archaeologists did on Sauria."

Katt stretched in her seat, then casually grabbed the control stick. "I wonder how General Pepper would react if he found out about this whole thing." Peppy, still inside the Great Fox, satisfied her thoughts, "A secret war going on in the Lylat System? General Pepper would probably want both sides out. Or, if he's in a good mood, he'll side with whoever is not trying to kill us while fighting the war. I think we'll be better off not telling him yet." Katt relaxed, staring out the canopy glass. Briefly, she thought back to the past, when she was with the Hot Rodders, or as she and her colleagues called it, Free-As-A-Bird. It was another mercenary team she was part of for the longest time before her decision to leave for Star Fox in pursuit of Falco. She remembered Kool, the team leader, "Mouser," as he was nicknamed, their heavy weapons teammate, nicknamed "Bowser," and that one robot who she had long since forgotten the name of, much like most of her teammates. She wasn't too sure why, but something vague about this situation reminded her of the time when Falco hung out with the Hot Rodders as an unofficial teammate.

A knot formed in her throat and she felt her eyes water a bit at the thought. She wondered what happened to the Hot Rodders after she left, and whether they were alright or not. Wiping her eyes, she was drawn back to the present through Falco's voice calling to her, "Hey, Katt! Everything alright there?" Katt tried to throw him off by responding in her usual, cheery, perverse tone she reserved only for him, "Yes it is, li'l birdy." Falco sounded flustered as he fumbled his words, "R-right. Um... I... I'll go and, um, check with Fox or something... later." Katt had to wait until she knew he wasn't in the conversation anymore to burst out laughing. She found him so cute whenever he got embarrassed. Thoughts of the Hot Rodders left when she pictured Falco, blushing very hard. She was drawn once again from her daydreams by Peppy's voice announcing to everyone, "We're almost to the coordinates, everyone. Be ready for anything."

[A/N]

→ More rewrites. Decided that the term 'Eradicon,' since official, will be used to designate the silver Jet Vehicons for the sake of convenience.

→ The nicknames for two of the Hot Rodders come from the Arwingpedia, where it mentions those names being printed on the backs of their vests.


	10. Chapter 9: Blue Bird

=Chapter 9: Blue Bird=

~x~X~x~X~x~

"It's just a little skill. Besides, it's nothing special, almost everyone on-board can cook up at least one meal. So why make a big deal of it?" Falco mused to himself, trying to find a reason that Katt was obsessed over the fact that he could cook. Fox being surprised, he understood, Falco wasn't normally one to make the meals, only bug Fox about his cooking. He glanced at the radar screen just in front of the Arwing's joysticks. The location that they had set out for was within range of their radar. It was a huge structure, much bigger than the Great Fox. If anything, it was on par with the Ark III, if anything. He turned his attention back to the region of space immediately in front of him. The location they were heading for was the Meteo Asteroid Field, a region of space that, in some scientist circles, may have held Lylat's Fifth planet.

"Well, I can see why you'd hide here, all these big asteroids floating around in such a dense structure and that makes it damn near impossible to find. But how the hell did they get it here in the first place?" Falco asked to no-one in particular. Peppy, who was hanging out in the Great Fox, gave a suggestion, "Perhaps they didn't exactly get the whole thing there in one piece." Falco briefly glanced at the monitor on the left side of the cockpit as Fay inquired what he meant. "What I mean is that they either built their base out of materials they found here, or they built pieces of it and assembled it in the asteroid field." At that point, a grey jet, a different model from before, flew up to the Arwings. The same, gruff voice of the Eradicon spoke to them, "Actually, we bridged here. Unfortunately, the location that we ended up in severely damaged much of the ship. We are likewise short on materials to repair our starship. Hence why I must inform you that large portions of our ship are off limits due to environmental conditions hazardous to your kind." Slippy was the first to notice the jet, "Mister Eradicon, is that you flying alongside us?" The Cybertronian only replied, "Yes. This is my alternate form, and my number is 2104." Fox asked the Transformer, "What do you mean when you say your number is 2104"

"I'll explain Generics, Army-building, and mass-production later."

~x~X~x~X~x~

Soundwave opened the Energon storage closet, where they were keeping the Protoform and the Spark being kept. He carefully observed the Spark, and realized that the rhythmic pulsating he had previously recorded were becoming steadily more erratic. The Spark in question was becoming more and more unstable, a sign that it was losing energy and fading.

He would have to start preparing the Spark to be reinserted sooner than predicted, and the radically low amounts of Energon available to power such a huge frame made it a bit intimidating to think about. Soundwave wasn't heartless, but he was tactical. He turned to the Vehicons aiding him. They simply stared back and wordless conversations seemed to fill the empty space between them. Raising an arm and pointing at the hallway behind them, Soundwave sent the two Vehicons to retrieve more of their brethren. He had a plan for being able to conserve what little Energon they had in storage while being able to bring it to life.

~x~X~x~X~x~

Starwing ran another internal analysis on his systems, glancing up to see Hound walking into the room. Pedes clinked across the floor to the computer, where he opened up a few programs with a few clicks. Pausing his internal scan, Starwing sat up and asked their new leader, "What're you doing?" Hound replied without even looking at him, "We need help. That simple. I'm opening up a channel and sending a request for aid." Starwing opened his mouth to protest when he silenced him, "Don't even start, Starwing. We're ill-equipped to handle things like this and I'm well aware of the risks of sending a message that open. And frankly, all I can say is this. Frag the mission. We can't take another hit like that with our limited medical abilities, so I'm pulling the plug on the search. Cybertron can send their own slagged recovery team." As soon as he paused, Starwing interjected, "And what are you gonna do? Return to Cybertron? Chicken out? That doesn't seem very brave." Hound turned to glare at him, "I'm not going to Cybertron, and I don't care if you think I'm a coward, this is a matter of practicality that we can't afford to strain." Starwing raised a hand to protest, stopping momentarily as he suddenly felt dizzy, "Yeah... Well like it or not, you're the most... experienced at leading... out of the five- er, four of us..." Hound activated the distress beacon, hoping that it would attract the attention of another Transformer vessel. He then turned to Starwing, "I don't care if I had the Matrix of Leadership in my chest, I'm not going to stay and let our numbers fall and resources dwindle for some simple excavation mission."

Starwing tried to argue, and promptly stumbled. Hound briefly snarled at him as he toppled toward him, then stopped as he fell limp against the sentry. As he fell to the ground, Hound grabbed hold of him and tried to slow his descent. He shook the triple-changer in an attempt to wake him and called his name, "Starwing?" Nothing. "Starwing?!" Hound ran a diagnostic scan and saw that close to every last drop of Energon in his body was being diverted toward the wheels on his hips and legs, and he had overheated to the point of shutting down. Those same wheels, he recalled, transformed into caterpillar treads for his Landmaster form. Looking up from the unconscious mech cradled in his arms, he yelled for the other three.

Stiletto was the first to arrive, with Cameo skating in shortly after. Upon seeing Starwing unconscious, they immediately rushed to help him. Unfortunately, no-one had any medical experience in this field, having only been a field medic patching up severed appendages with jury-rigged materials for a temporary fix at best. Stiletto looked up from Starwing briefly to see that Hound had sent a distress signal, "You're giving away our position?" Hound's yellow optics turned to Stiletto, "Yes. Besides, our base is already compromised Primus knows who knows where we are. We may as well try and find help from any allies we can. In the meantime, help me stabilize him! Now where is Pitstop?"

[A/N]

→ I'm not disregarding the RiD part of the Aligned continuity, this fanfic takes place around the time RiD occurs. Hence why Bumblebee, Grimlock, and Sideswipe aren't around for example. And yes, I have plans to work around the whole gimmick of Optimus being alive in that continuity without rendering this more of an AU than it already is.

→ Am I turning into Simon Furman? I swear, characters are just dropping left and right. But not to worry too much, only one of the two fallen characters here is what I would consider dead.

→ EDIT: Late update is late


	11. Chapter 10: Confusion

=Chapter 10: Confusion=

~x~X~x~X~x~

Hitching up the Vehicon donors to the red and blue frame, Nightbird glanced in the direction of metallic clinking as Soundwave walked into the room, holding the Spark container in his hands. He analyzed the pulsing of the Spark and determined that, regardless of how close the others were at this point, they needed to transplant the Spark into a body immediately, lest it be extinguished and their mission made pointless. With luck, with the few Energon cubes he was able to calculate as the bare minimum they would need, some of that percentage could be supplanted using Energon from a donor, or a few. In this case, Soundwave had opted to use a few donors so that he wouldn't have one specific Vehicon that was running on fumes.

Soundwave carefully pried open the frame and opened the Spark container. With the care a precision of a surgeon, he dumped the Spark into its Laser Core, a spherical casing that served as the first layer of protection for the Spark, as well as the bridge for Energon tubing to connect to in order to feed into the innermost Energon that kept the Spark alive and stable. Once Soundwave had closed up the Laser Core and the chest armor, he and Nightbird pulled down a large, drill-like device that they were going to use to infuse Energon into the frame. It was a much larger, older model of the hand-held Energon infuser that a medic would keep on-hand to aid in restoring lost Energon after either patching up a wound or to keep a soldier's tank full. Earlier, Soundwave had Nightbird load up the Energon infuser with a bunch of Energon cubes, including the substituted percentage from the aforementioned donors. With luck, there would be enough fresh Energon to activate the Protoform's life-functions, and enough Energon with residual charge to keep him running long enough for them to acquire more fresh Energon.

Nightbird glanced toward the Spymaster, who nodded back and pulled a lever. The Energon infuser lowered until the tip touched the frame. Nightbird then pressed a few buttons and turned a couple dials very slightly, for a steady input flow. Arcs of plasma-state Energon arced from the tip into the frame. Quickly realizing that it wouldn't be enough, Soundwave had Nightbird turn one of the two dials, which controlled the strength of each lightning bolt, which she proceeded to do. The arcs of Energon plasma, even though they still occurred at a slow and steady pace, were much thicker now and seemed to strike harder. If not for the fact that the frame was absorbing it, Nightbird would have worried that the Energon lightning was going to cut right through the table. Fortunately it didn't, as Soundwave checked the Spark vitals. They were stabilizing and the frame it was inhabiting was beginning to show signs of basic autonomous movement.

~x~X~x~X~x~

"Arc- er, Captain! We've received a distress signal and need you to see it!" Arcee tuned into the location of the Autotrooper's com-link, shifted into her vehicle mode, and raced down the halls of the ship to meet with the Autotrooper. She reached the communications room and shifted into her robot mode to greet the Autotrooper, "What's the situation?" The Autotrooper gestured to the message, "It's from a tachyon transmitter located on one of the more civilized planets in this star system. The message is exactly as follows." Arcee read the following message, "Medical assistance needed, mission aborted." Arcee asked the Autotrooper, "Any idea who sent it? Or specifics on where we might find them?" The Autotrooper checked through the coding of the message, "I've narrowed it down to one planet, and about twelve potential locations on that planet. As for who sent it, I have no idea. I can only assume that whatever they were here for, but as for who they are, I haven't the faintest idea beyond that they at least know what a tachyon transmitter is, and unless the natives have figured it out as well, it's one of our kind."

Arcee pondered this theory, "Send them a reply, tell them we will send aid if they will just reply with coordinates and identification. In the meantime, I'll have Knock Out get a team together for departure." As the Autotrooper typed in the message, Arcee stepped out of the communications hub to send the ex-Decepticon Medic the message. She received a reply of confirmation, and with that, proceeded to return to the com-hub to see about those coordinates.

~x~X~x~X~x~

"Is he stable?" Cameo asked Hound as he stood guard over Starwing, periodically checking on his vitals. "Only just. For reasons I can't really understand, save for his innermost Energon, a majority of his Energon had been redirected to those wheels. Unfortunately, I'm not a medic of any kind." Cameo sighed, "Any idea why? Gimme a theory at least." Hound stared at the unconscious Cybertronian for a while, then shook his head, "I got nothing." Cameo pressed a hand to her face, "Scrap." She then looked around, "Have you seen Stiletto recently? I swear, if I didn't know any better, I'd think she was someone else." Hound glared at her, "Is now really a time to gossip?" Cameo raised her hands in defense, "No, I'm serious! Since Macro left, she's been acting differently."

A voice behind her clarified, "I'm capable of trusting people too, two-wheeler." Cameo turned to see Stiletto leaning against the wall. Cameo noticed that a couple of their allies were missing, "Where's-"

"Dropped them off. Gained a bit of unwanted attention. Apparently my image has gotten around a bit since that fight near the transport convoy."

"Dammit Stiletto, we're supposed to be undercover!"

"Hypocrite."

"No, I'm serious!"

"And I'm pointing out that a while ago, you were more than willing to send a distress signal that very easily could have been intercepted by Cornerian satellites. In addition, knowledge of shapeshifting vehicles isn't exactly news to this star system, considering we've been here for a while now."

The console beeped and Cameo checked it, "It's from the... _Axalon_. They want coordinates to send medical aid to us, and identification." Hound looked up from a monitor showing Starwing's vitals and offered advice, "Give them what they want. The sooner we have help, the better." Cameo meditated over the advice, then typed in a reply and sent it.

~x~X~x~X~x~

"Captain Arcee, have you heard of these people?" The Autotrooper gestured to the names that had appeared alongside the coordinates. Arcee read them over and shook her head, "Outside of Hound, no. I'll advise Knock Out to be careful when he goes to investigate." Arcee pinged Knock Out through her com-link. Knock Out was a bit irritated, and it sounded like he was still busy, "Yes?" Arcee told him about her thoughts, to which he replied, "I'm glad you're concerned, but on the off chance that the signal's authentic, someone with at least a bit of medical experience is gonna need to get down there. I'll see you at the Space-Bridge momentarily."

Arcee grumbled and left the com-hub with the coordinates to meet with the medic and his team, consisting of three Autotroopers, and helped get the coordinates set for the Space-Bridge to jump to. One of the Autotroopers that wasn't part of Knock Out's team pulled a lever after the coordinates were set. The Space-Bridge swirled into existence and as Knock Out prepared to leave, Arcee grabbed him by the shoulder and told him, "I'm serious. Be careful out there. Considering that there's Insecticons in the area among other things, I'd appreciate if you didn't come back full of holes." Knock Out shrugged, "I'll be fine, just keep the Bridge in case we need to make a speedy return." With that, he and his team transformed and drove through the portal.

~x~X~x~X~x~

To say they were unprepared for their Bridge to open was an understatement. When the presumed medical team arrived, it had perhaps one of the last bots that Hound ever wanted to see. He didn't know Knock Out personally, but he knew him by reputation. So when the ex-Con appeared and announced himself as head of the medical team, Hound wasn't quite as excited about that. Nevertheless, he had a group of Autotroopers alongside him, and Hound was willing to give this bot the benefit of the doubt as the red medic set to work analyzing their patient.

A couple hours had passed since then, and Knock Out had just finished his diagnosis. Cameo approached him and asked, "What's wrong with him, doc?" Knock Out tapped the screen of a small x-ray scanner and frowned, "Not looking good. He's suffering from a unique variant of Faux Parts. I took the liberty of scanning his T-cog and Trans-Scanner. Before you ask, I've figured that his T-cog is a 3ATR-Model, so I know about how the coding works. Anyway, I discovered two conflicting codes trying to implement themselves into his Terrain Slot. My best guess is that he might have scanned two different vehicles without realizing it and because of that, he's manifested a more aggressive form of Faux Parts that, instead of being spare parts, try to bridge the gap between both codes. It's damaged his personality coding and his T-cog is basically ruined. His Energon's critically low, no doubt due to the malformed alt-mode pieces." He stood up and turned to Cameo, "I might be able to help him, but if you really lack the medical assistance you need, we'll have to move him to the Axalon's medical bay." Cameo raised an optic-ridge, "What's notable about that?"

"I worry that trying to move him too quickly might cause his already compromised system to worsen his condition." Pitstop offered to help and as he did, Knock Out asked Cameo, "Has..."

"Starwing."

"Has Starwing had any moments like this before? When did he get his alt-modes?"

"...No, not that I can remember... But he's had the alt-modes for about six meta-cycles now."

"...Well, dumb as it was, I gotta hand it to the little 'bot for holding out as long as he did, whether or not he knew it."

~x~X~x~X~x~

As they moved Starwing through the Space-Bridge, a number of things happened at once. Soundwave and Nightbird left the medical bay, then there was beeping noise the drew Soundwave's attention back to the medical bay. There was an explosion of radiant blue light that sent the nearest Transformers into stasis from overcharge. The wave expanded throughout the ship and out through any holes it found into space, where most of it dissipated either into the asteroids or into empty space, but part of the wave connected with the Ark III, sending electrical impulses that knocked out anyone too close to any powerful devices, and sending the wave through the Space-Bridge. While everyone in it was knocked back, the wave appeared to absorb energy from its surroundings briefly, before being expelled as a miniature version of the same wave, amplified by the energy of the Space-bridge. The wave of light spread out from the portal through their home base and shorting out electronics. It also affected the casket of one fallen ally, leaving a brilliant glow inside it that subsided after a while.

A/N

To Prowlfan1011: Fortunately no, it's not writer's block. Unfortunately, it's a case of Real Life Writing the Plot. I wish I could devote more time to Fanfiction, but things like school, family, and friends do tend to take precedence. I've also been working a lot on some original fiction of my own. And I update sporadically anyways, so I guess don't expect like a bi-weekly update basis or anything like that. On the bright side, do expect to see some more interesting content from now on. Thanks for your concern!

→ I have had an idea and have run with it. Faux parts, while out-of-universe is the term for pieces on a Transformer that look like part of one mode or the other and aren't used, is a term in-universe to describe a glitch in the T-cog's collaboration with the Trans-scanner where scan data isn't fully or properly implemented into the Protoform's new form. Thus, it results in the appearance of spare 'unused' parts simply called Faux Parts. They can be a bit resource-hogging, hence the need to remove them. There are fairly easy ways to remove them, such as corrective surgery or transformation therapy, the second one is simply the conditioning of the transformation process designed to either reabsorb or integrate the Faux Parts in a resource-conservative way. As with Starwing, his case is a bit unique as to how he got Faux Parts, but it's functionally the same thing in terms of effects and treatment.

→ I have also coined a bit of new terminology to describe the T-cogs of triple changers, quad-formers, even eleven changers. That 3ATR term essentially means "3 Forms, Aerial, Terrain, Robot." This would change according the number of forms or the type of form in question. For example, 4RTRT would stand for "4 Forms, Robot, Terrain, Robot, Terrain," which would be the T-cog for TFAminated Shockwave for example. Shifters instead have the designation of "S" to stand for Shifter (redundant, thy name is Mr. Hybrid).

→ For an indefinite amount of time, this story will be put on hold to allow me time to work on other fanfics in the meantime. I will return at a later date.


End file.
